#testingcenter

It was late on a Saturday morning, and I had less than 30 minutes to be in Chandler from Scottsdale, a 30 minute drive in and of itself.  The reason to be in such a rush?  The NCLEX.  This national test I was about to sit for to (hopefully) get my RN license already had my stomach in knots.  Then life added more stressors than I could handle at one time.  For example:

1.  A client is about to be late for his or her NCLEX testing time.  You as the nurse:

A.  Allow the printer to be out of ink, therefore rendering it impossible for him or her to print a copy of the ATT.

B.  Ensure the client cannot use his or her phone to pull up a map to the testing center.

C.  Put new ink cartridges in the mailbox, but when they are connected in the printer, do not allow the client to print the paper because of a long-waiting queue.

D.  A and C only.

Here's a little story to unravel that mystery.

As I was about to walk out the door with my mom, we checked the directions page, which I had printed weeks before to make sure I had everything I needed.  My mom scanned the letter, and asked me if I had the ATT.  I can't believe I haven''t already printed a copy of it, I thought to myself.  Usually I am much more organized than that.  Well, I will just print a copy of it now, I thought.  And THAT is where I went wrong.

The printer when I walked into the office said I needed to change the ink.  There were cartridges sitting next to it, so I opened the lid and swapped them out.  Little did I know, I had just replaced bad ink with, well, bad ink.  Figuring this out, my dad ran down to the mailbox telling me he was expecting more any day now.  Lucky for me, some new ink had arrived!   Chaching!, I thought.  However, the queue for the printer was so long, it couldn't even get to the ATT!  Now, just about 20-25 minutes before I needed to be at the testing center, my mom rushed me out the door and exclaimed we would just run by her office to print it.

Naturally, when we got to her office (the hospital), there was not a parking space to be seen.  Secondly, both entrances my mom typically uses were locked.  Panic building, we went running through the ER.  

My mom, having not been in her office recently found her computer to be shut down.  Her coworker's computer was up and running, however.  In a second, my mom closed everything Gyneth was working on, and had me logged into my email so I could print that ATT.  

Now in the car, I found my mom was NOT afraid to add a little more excitement to the morning.  She drove me 90 mph to the testing center, and got me there with 7 minutes to spare.  I can't believe I actually made it, I thought.  Relief was not mine, though, until they allowed me to fingerprint in, and opened the door for me to take that test.  I was shocked that sitting for the test had been the least stressful part of my morning so far!

4 hours and 45 minutes later, I walked out of the center, feeling drained but accomplished.  It took me every question (265), and almost 5 hours, but I was DONE.  I didn't think about it too much more that afternoon, except to answer my mom's questions about the test.