A Push to Future Nurses

"I did my best and I know I have my chances." - an excerpt from a now RN friend.

This is one statement that stuck in my head years after the night our NLE result was released. I was fortunate to have passed the exam but was also heartbroken trying to comfort good friends who did not make it. It never occurred to me that the minute I become a boardpasser I am to apply all the nursing therapeutic communications I have learned in and out of the classroom. During this time it was hard to be full-throttle celebratory that I could only settle with being thankful.

The NLE, like any other board examinations, can be a life-altering event. Making it to the roster gives license to practice one's chosen profession. But while others take it as one huge step to reaching their dreams, to some it becomes a make or break deal. I have seen test-takers who were either disheartened or digressed by ill luck in this exam. Perhaps because we program ourselves to pass and never do we make any contingency plans that we put ourselves into instant defenselessness. Not making it the first time then becomes a more onerous test - a test to one's character. There are those who start to question their abilites, others turn either cynical or sour, and there are those who hastily decides to call it quits without attempt for a second try.

Bereavement is normal. We are humans afterall. But redemption will have to be a matter of choice. To those people who remain averse about retaking the exam will never know the difference; while those who prefer to rise to the occasion will have their chances of becoming certified one day. In this case, fortune may clearly have to favor the brave.

With the recent release of the new batch of registered nurses, I can't help but look back at that night when I had to share strength to colleagues who needed them. Years passed and I am proud to say that these friends of mine are not only licensed, but now fair in the industry, simply because they did not give up. What our future nurses should not fail to see is that NLE is a rite of passage; and it serves another purpose of bringing out the best or the worst in its test-takers, either of which for their own choosing. Life is larger post oath-taking to just miss out on it.

I often say that it's not about who's the smartest or who's the most studious in class who succeeds in this kind of endeavor. It has got to be the most determined that brings home the greatest reward. Because in a parallel universe where the smartest, the studious, and the determined all fail, the latter already has the determination, the spirit that will deliver.