Des Moines.

Monday, the night before boards, a friend and I spent the night in Des Moines with every intention on studying and getting a great night of sleep. Now when we opened our nursing books we got nervous and began to dread the big test in the morning. To calm our nerves we went to Olive Garden for a great meal and of course a drink or two.

We went back to the hotel and there was an ice cream shop in the hotel and I seen beer bottles lined the shelf behind the bar. We went in and took a seat when I asked the waiter if this was the only place in the hotel to get a drink. Within a minute a very nice man approached us to explain that there was a bar on the second floor and was nice enough to show us the way.

We sat in that second floor bar for a good hour or two having a few more drinks. After awhile we decided that getting drunk the night before your nursing boards was not the best idea so we decided to take a swim in the pool. We were the only ones in the pool and it was great but all we could talk about was the 'big scary test'. We got interrupted with a man banging on the door. (I'll leave that for a different blog)

Needless to say we got back to the room around eleven and thought we should study. We got out our review note cards and all it did was get us worried. So we put them away and shut off the lights.

Neither of us slept well at all; a lot of tossing and turning. Nerves, were getting the best of us. Six am and the alarm was going off. We showered and checked out. I drove us to the testing center and it hit us--we did not study at all!

To take the boards you have to have your Authorization to Test, your ID and fingerprints. They won't let you take anything into the testing room--not even a Kleenex.

The questions were hard and my nerves were shot. You have no idea how many questions you are going to have; the range is 85-260 questions. You have 300 minutes to complete your test. When the computer reaches the amount of questions that you are to take it shuts off. My test ended at 115 questions.

We both left Des Moines knowing we failed. It was a quiet ride home. We made it home by lunch time which is good beings our test started at eight in the morning. We enjoyed a very quiet lunch together and than went on with our separate days.

Yesterday while I was at work my friend text me and stated "I passed!" knowing that she got online and paid to see her test results just made me anxious to know mine. I came home and entered all my information just to find out...I passed my boards.