In this second installment of a five‑part series, Christina Rafano explains a core NCLEX test‑taking rule: you should rarely, if ever, contact the physician when answering exam questions. She warns that exam writers often include “notify the doctor” as a tempting distractor and encourages students to pause, consider what immediate nursing action can be taken first. Rafano illustrates the principle with a sample NCLEX‑style scenario involving a 40‑year‑old pregnant client presenting with vaginal bleeding and decreased fetal movement. She walks through each answer choice, concluding that applying an external fetal monitor to assess the fetus is the correct first step, not calling the doctor. Throughout, she promotes the NCLEX RN Mastery app (with an affiliate link) as a resource for practicing thousands of questions, and ends with typical YouTube calls to subscribe, hit the notification bell, and an encouraging sign‑off.
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Hello. Hello friend. My name is Christina Rafano from nursingschoolofsuccess.com and this is the second video in a five part video series all about nursing exam questions and test taking strategies for nursing students. In each of these next few videos, we are going to dive into one nursing test taking strategy to help you totally rock your nursing exams. Plus, we're gonna walk through an example nursing exam question in each video. So before we get started, make sure you're subscribed to this channel so you don't miss out on any of the other nursing school tips and tricks that I've got for you. Trust me, you don't want to miss anything that I've got coming up for you. Now let's do this. Okie dokie. So the nursing test taking strategy we'll talk about in this video is that you rarely, if ever, contact the doctor. Now this is Nursing Exam world we're talking about here. Obviously, in real life you'll want to keep the healthcare team and the doctor in the loop as much as possible and when necessary. But in nursing exam land, you rarely should contact the doctor. There is almost always something you could and should do first. Now, oftentimes nursing exam questions will give you a case scenario question and ask you what you'll do first or what your initial action would be. So the exam question will give you a patient scenario and ask you what you would do first if you you were taking care of that specific patient. And then they'll throw in a whole bunch of answers and one of them might be to contact the doctor. And then when you see that answer there, you will freak out and you'll think to yourself, oh my gosh, that must be a super serious situation if they're wondering if I should contact the doctor. So that must be the correct answer. No friend, don't fall for it. They are trying to trick you. That's what they want you to think. But pause, take a step back, think about it and decide if there is something that you can do first before contacting the doctor. So to get a better example of what I mean by that, let's walk through an example nursing exam question. Now, this exam question comes from the NCLEX RN Mastery app. And this is the app that I used throughout nursing school and I highly recommend that you use it too to help you get more familiar with nursing exam questions. Now, the more you practice answering nursing exam questions like these, the more confident you are going to be when you actually go and take your nursing school exam. Plus, and this is A big plus. The more you practice answering these nursing exam questions, the better you're gonna get at identifying these little nursing exam hacks. So it will make your exam go a whole lot smoother when you're confident and you can identify these little nursing exam hacks. So make sure you download this app right after you watch this video because it's going to help you so so much in nursing school. There is an affiliate link down below for you to snag that app. And just a little disclaimer here. Of course, if you do decide to purchase this app through my affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Of course. Friend, you know that I will never ever recommend something to you that I don't 1000% love so you can be confident that y this will save your life in nursing school. I can't stress it enough how much it helped me during nursing school. Life saver. So there is an affiliate link down below in the description for you to snag that app. So like I said, the nursing test taking strategy that we're talking about is that you should rarely if ever call the doctor. So let's read through an example nursing school question. This one says a 40 year old G3P0 client at 36 weeks gestation presents to triage with a complaint of vaginal bleeding and decreased fetal movement in the last 48 hours. Which action does the nurse perform first? Perform a vaginal exam, assess amount of vaginal bleeding, notify the healthcare provider or apply an external fetal monitor. Now this question is asking what your first action would be. And remember, when answering nursing exam questions, your first action is to rarely call the doctor. There is almost always something that you can and should do first. So let's take a look at the other answers and put it to the test. Is there a better answer to select? And the answer is yes. The question is asking about vaginal bleeding and the baby's movement. So really you're wanting to assess the health of the baby. There is one answer that gives you more information about how that little one is doing and that is to apply the external fetal monitor so that you can actually hear the baby's heartbeat and see if that little baby is okay. You don't need to call the doctor right away, you need to assess that baby first. And that my friend, is your nursing test taking strategy to help you out with your nursing exams. Rarely if ever call the doctor and make sure that you snag the NCLEX RN Mastery app to get access to thousands and I mean thousands of nursing exam questions. This app is amazing. You don't want to live without it. So I put that link down below. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel and hit that little bell icon to get notified when we post a new video. Thank you so much for watching, friend. Now go become the nurse that God created only you to be, and I will see you right back here next time on the Nursing School show. Take care of.
