Stop Waiting to Feel Ready
Nursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Release Date: 06/10/2026
Nursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Start NURSING.com for free at: It’s 0645, you’re outside the unit, and your brain is forty open tabs. The next five minutes decide whether today is a shift or a shipwreck. Jon Haws RN shares the exact 5-minute pre-shift routine he ran before every ICU shift of his career — and taught every student he precepted: Minute 1, the story (why is this human in this bed today?). Minute 2, the numbers that matter for THIS patient. Minute 3, lines and meds. Minute 4, three real questions that change how the whole building treats you. Minute 5, the one thing you verify with your own eyes. Plus the...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Start a FREE SIMCLEX at: That 98% NCLEX pass rate on your school’s banner is real — nobody’s lying. But 98% of whom? Jon Haws RN does the math admissions tours skip: how attrition and exit-exam gates shape pass-rate statistics, why programs protect the number (the incentive, not the people, is the monster), and the one question that reveals more than any brochure: “Of students who START, how many graduate and pass first try?” Plus the mindset shift for students already in a program — your school’s predictor answers THEIR question; you need your own answer — and the playbook if...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Start a FREE SIMCLEX at: The screen goes black at question 75. You’re certain you failed. You cry in the parking lot, you google “shut off at 75 did I fail” forty times, you grieve for 48 hours — and then: PASS. This story happens to thousands of nursing grads every cycle, and this episode explains why. Jon Haws RN breaks down how the NCLEX’s adaptive algorithm is designed to make EVERYONE feel like they’re drowning, why the better you’re doing the harder your test feels, why a minimum-question shut-off is a neutral signal, and the parking-lot protocol for protecting your...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
TRY NURSING.com FOR FREE AT: The most-requested episode in the history of this podcast — completely re-recorded and updated for 2026, with a FREE printable study template. Jon Haws RN breaks down the 5-step system for passing any nursing school exam: studying the test before the content, turning objectives into questions, retrieval over re-reading (highlighting is banned), the 3-2-1 spacing method, and rehearsing real test conditions — the step that separates knowing it from proving it under pressure. Plus the worst exam of Jon’s life and what it taught him about why hard-working...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Try SIMCLEX for FREE at: A 79.4. Passing was an 80. “I don’t round.” If you’ve ever felt like a nursing instructor was looking for a reason to fail you, this episode is for you — no instructor-bashing, just the truth about why subjective clinical grading keeps hurting good students, and the exact 5-move playbook to protect yourself: documentation habits, email trails, appeal deadlines, and how to fight with a rubric instead of emotions. Jon Haws RN shares his own story of being the student who stopped raising his hand — and the message from a 34-year-old career changer that...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
If you're working full-time, raising kids, or both, this episode is your entire NCLEX prep roadmap: 30 days, about 2 hours a day, built for people with real jobs and real lives. Jon Haws, RN, CCRN walks through the complete 4-phase system, day by day: PHASE 1 — Days 1–3: DIAGNOSE. Take a full-length adaptive diagnostic under real test conditions (not a static quiz), audit your results by client-need category, identify your bottom 3 weak areas, and build your 30-day calendar around YOUR shifts — including why night shifters should never study after a twelve. PHASE 2 — Days 4–19:...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
"Just do more questions" — the advice every nursing student gets and the reason so many walk into the NCLEX unprepared for what it actually is. Jon Haws RN breaks down computer-adaptive testing, why you can miss 45% of questions and still pass, why static question banks train the wrong skill, and how to rehearse the shut-off before test day. Start a SIMCLEX free — first 15 questions on us at SIMCLEX.com. Keywords: NCLEX study tips, computer adaptive test NCLEX, NCLEX question banks, how NCLEX scoring works, Next Gen NCLEX.
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
(start free — first 15 questions free) Failed the NCLEX? Nobody tells you what happens next — not your school, not your program, nobody. Jon Haws RN walks through the exact 45-day retake roadmap: reading your Candidate Performance Report, why most retakes fail on format (not content), and how repeat test-takers turn a fail into a pass. Start a SIMCLEX free — first 15 questions on us at SIMCLEX.com. Keywords: failed NCLEX, NCLEX retake, candidate performance report, NCLEX fail what next, computer adaptive test, NCLEX simulation.
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Test your pharm knowledge at: If pharmacology is the thing that's breaking you right now, I want to start with the most freeing sentence you'll hear all week: you cannot memorize pharmacology, and you need to stop trying. I mean it. There are thousands of medications. Nobody — not your sharpest classmate, not your instructor, not a working nurse with twenty years on the floor — has them all memorized as individual facts. So if your study plan is "make flashcards for every drug and its dose and its side effects and its contraindications," I need you to hear that the plan itself is...
info_outlineNursing Podcast by NURSING.com (NRSNG) (NCLEX® Prep for Nurses and Nursing Students)
Get rid of the imposter at:
info_outlineGo take the first step: SIMCLEX.com
If you're waiting to feel ready before you take the next step, I want to lovingly tell you something: that feeling may not show up first. It may not show up at all the way you're picturing it.
I see this constantly, and I've lived it. We tell ourselves, "I'll start when I feel ready. I'll schedule the test when I'm confident. I'll take the practice exam once I've reviewed just a little more." On the surface, that sounds responsible. It sounds careful. It sounds like preparation.
Here's the problem. Waiting feels safe. More time, more notes, more videos, one more review pass — it all feels like getting ready. It scratches the itch of "I'm doing something." So we keep doing it, and the calendar keeps moving.
But waiting can quietly become avoidance. And the dangerous part is the two look absolutely identical from the inside. Sometimes "I need more time" is true. And sometimes "I need more time" really means "I'm scared to find out where I stand." You have to be honest about which one it is — because one moves you forward and the other keeps you stuck while pretending to help.