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NURSING.com Podcast — NCLEX Prep for Nursing Students

Jon Haws RN: Nursing Podcast Host, Critical Care Nurse, Nursing School Men

Helping Nursing Students Succeed. Period.

Free Nursing School and NCLEX Cheat Sheets at nursing.com/freebies

Welcome to the NURSING.com Show from NURSING.com . . . #1 Nursing Podcast and the leader in nursing student education.
New motivational episodes 2-3 times per week covering:

Struggling Students - common questions and concerns from students.

Tips and Nurse Life - how to succeed as a nursing student and nurse.

Interviews - discussion with through leaders, entrepreneurs, and authors.

Anatomy and Physiology and Nursing Care for various disease processes.
Follow us on social media @nursing.com_ on Instagram or @nursing.comofficial on Facebook

From the leading nursing education website (NURSING.com) comes the top nursing podcast. With pharmacology episodes, test taking tips, student struggles, interviews (with leading nurse advocates like Kati Kleber, Nurse Bass, Nurse Nacole, and more), NCLEX review, we cover the information that nurses need to know to accelerate their career and become incredible RNs.

Jon Haws RN, the host has worked as a critical care registered nurse in a Level I Trauma hospital in Dallas, TX.

Jon is the creator of NURSING.com. Visit the site and check out the books on Amazon.com We discuss current trends in the ICU, anatomy, physiology, nursing care, and much more. Our goal is to change nursing education forever by making it more accessible, cutting the fluff, and teaching students how to think like nurses through modern technology.

For full disclaimer information visit: nursing.com

NCLEX®, NCLEX-RN® are registered trademarks of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, INC.

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Wednesday · 3 min
CATS Hypercalcemia and Hypocalcemia | Nursing Mnemonics for NCLEX
Welcome to Nursing Mnemonics — new episodes drop every Wednesday. Calcium imbalances show up on the NCLEX all the time. This episode teaches you CATS for hypocalcemia (convulsions, arrhythmias, tetany, spasms) and the groans, moans, bones, stones, and overtones of hypercalcemia — so you can nail any calcium question. Go to nursing.com/cheatsheets to get the must-know nursing mnemonics for NCLEX.
Tuesday · 5 min
LAB VALUES IN 5: Ammonia for NCLEX
Ammonia — the must-know liver lab value for the NCLEX, covered in 5 minutes. In this episode: what ammonia measures, the normal reference range of 19-60 in conventional units (11-35 SI units), how ammonia is the byproduct of protein metabolism that the liver converts to urea, why elevated ammonia means the liver can't make that conversion, causes including advanced liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatitis, how high ammonia leads to hepatic encephalopathy and decreased neuro status, how lactulose treats it by binding ammonia to stool, and using ammonia to monitor hepatic encephalopathy treatment and patients on TPN. Keywords: ammonia, normal range, reference range 19-60, elevated ammonia, liver function, protein metabolism, urea, BUN, hepatic encephalopathy, lactulose, cirrhosis, hepatitis, neuro status, TPN, NCLEX lab values, nursing labs. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get the 63 must-know lab values to pass the NCLEX at https://nursing.com/63labs — the free study guide every nursing student needs before test day. New episodes of Lab Values in 5 drop every Tuesday.
Monday · 4 min
MED OF THE DAY: Atenolol (Tenormin)
Welcome to Med of the Day — new episodes drop every Monday. It's Med Monday! In this episode: Atenolol (Tenormin) — hear that '-olol' suffix and think beta blocker. An antihypertensive and anti-anginal that blocks beta-1 stimulation, slowing the heart and relaxing vessels. Used for hypertension, angina, and MI prevention. The must-knows: check heart rate and blood pressure right before giving it; contraindicated in CHF, pulmonary edema, cardiogenic shock, bradycardia, and heart block; it can mask hypoglycemia symptoms in diabetes; and advise patients to change positions slowly to avoid orthostatic hypotension. Download your FREE cheatsheet of the 50 most commonly prescribed medications: https://nursing.com/50meds
October 2 · 4 min
I Don't Think I Should Be a Nurse: New Nurse Stories | First Shift
"I deserve to die. I really think I shouldn't be a nurse." Those are a real nurse's words — posted on allnurses on her sixth day as a nurse. She was working long-term care, a patient fell, and she froze. She never went back to assess him. She never filed the incident report. And she didn't realize any of it until she got home — when the guilt hit her like a truck. In this episode of First Shift, Jon Haws, RN — founder of NURSING.com — tells her story start to finish, names the thing she's feeling (impostor syndrome, and nearly every new nurse gets it), and shares the three things that actually help: stop comparing your insides to everyone else's outsides, keep a file of the good moments for the bad days, and let go of perfect — it doesn't exist in nursing. Plus: why the guilt you're feeling is proof you care enough to be great at this. If you're a nursing student or a new nurse, this one's for you. New episodes of First Shift drop every Friday — real stories from nurses' first shifts, and the honest talk that gets you through yours. Studying for the NCLEX? Try SIMCLEX — the adaptive practice exam that tells you when you're ready: https://nursing.com/simclex It's time to go out and be your best self today. Happy nursing, y'all.
October 1 · 2 min
QOD: Hypokalemia | NCLEX Practice Question
Today's NCLEX Question of the Day: The nursing category is labs. The NCLEX category is basic care and comfort. A patient who has been suffering from severe diarrhea has developed hypokalemia and cardiac arrhythmias as a result. Which of the following treatments would most likely be ordered for this patient to correct the situation? A, IV administration of potassium. B, oral intake of potassium by electrolyte preparations. C, encouraged intake of potassium rich foods such as bananas. D, no intervention but continue to monitor the patient's hemodynamic status. Think you know the answer? Listen to the episode for the full breakdown and rationale. Do you actually KNOW if you're ready for the NCLEX, or are you just hoping? Stop guessing and find out for free. Take the free SIMCLEX at nursing.com/simclex. It simulates the algorithms of the NCLEX, the same question rules, the same difficulty, so you get a real feel for what the actual exam is like. New NCLEX Question of the Day episodes drop every Thursday.
September 30 · 3 min
FRIED Hypernatremia | Nursing Mnemonics for NCLEX
Quick... list the signs and symptoms of hypernatremia! In this episode, we nail hypernatremia for the NCLEX with three memory tricks. FRIED: Flushed skin, Restlessness, Increased fluid retention and increased blood pressure, Edema, Decreased urinary output and dry mouth. SWINE: Sleepy, Weakness, Irritability, Neuromuscular excitability, Edema. SALT: Skin flushed, Agitation, Low-grade fever, Thirst. Plus MODEL for the causes: Medications or meals, Osmotic diuretics, Diabetes insipidus, Excessive water loss, Low water intake. In this episode we cover: hypernatremia defined as serum sodium above 145; normal serum sodium 135 to 145; too much sodium vs too little free water as causes; and why you must assess volume status before treating. Go to nursing.com/cheatsheets to get the must-know nursing mnemonics for NCLEX. And remember... Nursing Mnemonics drops a new episode every Wednesday... so we'll see you then.
September 29 · 4 min
LAB VALUES IN 5: Alanine Aminotransferase for NCLEX
Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) — the must-know liver lab value for the NCLEX, covered in 5 minutes. In this episode: what ALT measures, the normal reference range of 8-40 (under 34 for women, under 52 for men), why ALT is more specific to liver damage than AST, causes of elevated ALT including hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcohol abuse and liver tumors, how high ALT can climb in acute hepatitis (up to 10 times normal) and how long it stays elevated, and how ALT is used alongside AST, bilirubin and protein in liver function tests. Keywords: ALT, alanine aminotransferase, normal range, reference range 8-40, elevated ALT, liver function tests, LFTs, hepatic damage, hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcohol abuse, liver tumors, jaundice, AST vs ALT, bilirubin, NCLEX lab values, nursing labs. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get the 63 must-know lab values to pass the NCLEX at https://nursing.com/63labs — the free study guide every nursing student needs before test day. New episodes of Lab Values in 5 drop every Tuesday.
September 28 · 3 min
MED OF THE DAY: Ampicillin (Principen)
Welcome to Med of the Day — new episodes drop every Monday. It's Med Monday! In this episode: Ampicillin (Principen) — a broad-spectrum aminopenicillin that is bactericidal, binding the bacterial cell wall. Used for skin, soft-tissue, respiratory, GU, and sinus infections, otitis media, meningitis, and septicemia. The must-knows: penicillin allergy is a contraindication — assess every time; use caution with renal insufficiency; watch for seizures, anaphylaxis, and superinfection like C. diff; avoid with oral contraceptives; monitor liver function tests; and tell patients to finish the full course. Download your FREE cheatsheet of the 50 most commonly prescribed medications: https://nursing.com/50meds
September 25 · 5 min
My First Code: New Nurse Stories | First Shift
The premiere of First Shift — our new Friday series: real stories from nurses' first shifts, and the honest talk that gets you through yours. A real nurse wrote on allnurses about her first code — she froze while twenty people flooded the room, then replayed it all night wondering if the other nurses thought less of her. She's not alone: another new grad froze during hers too. Jon Haws, RN — founder of NURSING.com — has worked with thousands of nurses and nursing students just like you. His preceptor pushed him into chest compressions on his own first code. In this episode: why freezing is normal, the mentor talk every new nurse needs, and the family truth — we're all in this together. Stop guessing if you're ready — pass the NCLEX with confidence: https://nursing.com/simclex Now go out and be your best self today. Happy nursing, y'all.
September 24 · 2 min
QOD: Scleroderma | NCLEX Practice Question
Today's NCLEX Question of the Day: The nursing category is integumentary. The NCLEX category is basic care and comfort. A 36-year-old patient has been diagnosed with scleroderma and has breathing difficulties, including wheezing and dry cough. Which of the following skin changes would the nurse also expect to see upon assessment of this patient? A, a pinpoint rash across the neck and chest. B, excess skin folds that break down easily. C, moist pale skin that feels cool to the touch. D, stiff, tight skin that is lighter or darker than surrounding skin. Think you know the answer? Listen to the episode for the full breakdown and rationale. Do you actually KNOW if you're ready for the NCLEX, or are you just hoping? Stop guessing and find out for free. Take the free SIMCLEX at nursing.com/simclex. It simulates the algorithms of the NCLEX, the same question rules, the same difficulty, so you get a real feel for what the actual exam is like. New NCLEX Question of the Day episodes drop every Thursday.
September 23 · 2 min
Odd Man Out Blood Types | Nursing Mnemonics for NCLEX
Quick... name the universal donor! Sweating a bit? Nervous? In this episode, we lock in blood types for the NCLEX with one simple picture: imagine type O as a huge circle — like the universe — because type O is the UNIVERSAL DONOR. They give to everybody. But type O is also the odd man out: they can only RECEIVE type O. Universal donor... universally odd. In this episode we cover: ABO blood groups (O, A, B, AB); type O as the universal donor; why type O can only receive type O; Rh positive and negative basics; and what the NCLEX tests about transfusions and blood compatibility. Go to nursing.com/cheatsheets to get the must-know nursing mnemonics for NCLEX. And remember... Nursing Mnemonics drops a new episode every Wednesday... so we'll see you then.
September 22 · 4 min
LAB VALUES IN 5: aPTT for NCLEX
Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (aPTT) — the must-know coagulation lab value for the NCLEX, covered in 5 minutes. In this episode: what aPTT measures, the normal reference range of 25-39 seconds, what a prolonged aPTT means, causes including factor deficiencies, hemophilia, liver disease, vitamin K deficiency and heparin therapy, the critical value of greater than 70 seconds, how aPTT compares to PT for identifying clotting factor problems, and nursing considerations for patients on anticoagulants. Keywords: aPTT, activated partial thromboplastin time, normal range, reference range 25-39 seconds, prolonged aPTT, heparin monitoring, critical lab values, coagulation factors, clotting factors, hemophilia, von Willebrand, liver disease, vitamin K deficiency, anticoagulants, NCLEX lab values, nursing labs. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get the 63 must-know lab values to pass the NCLEX at https://nursing.com/63labs — the free study guide every nursing student needs before test day. New episodes of Lab Values in 5 drop every Tuesday.
September 21 · 3 min
MED OF THE DAY: Amoxicillin (Moxatag)
Welcome to Med of the Day — new episodes drop every Monday. It's Med Monday! In this episode: Amoxicillin (Moxatag) — an aminopenicillin anti-infective that inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis. Used for respiratory and skin infections, sinusitis, endocarditis prophylaxis, and Lyme disease. The must-knows: always assess for penicillin allergy before giving it, watch for anaphylaxis and skin rashes, know the seizure risk, remember it's renally excreted so monitor BUN and creatinine, and report bloody stool immediately. Download your FREE cheatsheet of the 50 most commonly prescribed medications: https://nursing.com/50meds
September 15 · 3 min
Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen (Norco): NCLEX Must-Knows
Hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Norco) is one of the most common meds you'll see for moderate-to-severe and post-op pain. In this MedMaster episode: therapeutic and pharmacologic class, how the combo lets you use less opioid, mechanism of action at opiate receptors in the CNS, and the nursing must-knows — monitor for hypotension and respiratory depression, never exceed 4g of acetaminophen in 24 hours, and keep Narcan (naloxone) in mind as the reversal agent. Get your free download of the 50 most commonly prescribed medications — the must-knows for the NCLEX and real life on the floor: https://nursing.com/50meds
September 11 · 11 min
Nursing Students Are Asking AI the Questions They're Afraid to Ask Their Instructors
It's 2am, the care plan is due at 7, and a nursing student types into a chatbot: "explain preload and afterload like I'm five" — because asking out loud just feels expensive. All over the country, students are having their most honest learning conversations with a machine, and everyone's debating whether it's cheating. Wrong debate. Jon Haws RN asks the more useful question — why does asking a machine feel so much easier than asking out loud? — and delivers the honest guide: the green zone (tutoring, practice questions, explainers), the yellow zone (AI is confidently wrong — verify anything that would touch a patient; care plans; know your program's policy), the red zone (integrity, borrowed understanding, and the HIPAA rule that can end a career: never paste real patient information into AI, ever), and the office-hours script that brings your questions back to the humans. Then the question only you can answer: is the understanding actually YOURS yet? Find out free — start a SIMCLEX at SIMCLEX.com, first 15 questions on us: true adaptive engine, every Next Gen item type, the most realistic mirror of the real thing that exists. Free Green-Yellow-Red screenshot card in the show notes. Keywords: nursing students using ChatGPT, is it cheating to use AI in nursing school, AI care plans nursing, ChatGPT nursing school policy, how to use AI to study nursing, HIPAA AI nursing students, free NCLEX simulation.
September 10 · 9 min
The Nurses of September 11th
Twenty-five years ago today, rows of gurneys stood ready outside St. Vincent's Hospital — and stayed empty. Most of you listening weren't born yet. So today: no study tips, no advice, nothing to sign up for. Just the stories that belong to this profession now — the hospitals that stood ready, the largest patient influx in American hospital history at a small downtown hospital, and the nurses we lost: Captain Kathy Mazza, the OR nurse turned Port Authority commander who shot out the North Tower's glass walls so hundreds could escape, found five months later beside the patient she refused to leave — alongside Stephen Huczko, a fellow nurse-officer. Touri Bolourchi. Jean Hoadly Peterson. Lydia Bravo. Christine Egan. And the nurses still caring for 9/11 responders and survivors, twenty-five years later. This is not a history lesson. It's a handoff.
September 9 · 10 min
Nursing School Will Cost You Some Relationships. Nobody Warns You Which Ones
Somewhere between first semester and pinning, relationships end — the supportive boyfriend, the childhood best friend, sometimes the fiancé — and every cohort knows it and nobody says it out loud. Jon Haws RN says it out loud: why nursing school strains relationships in ways nobody warns you about (it doesn't just take your time — it changes your availability as a person, and growth and leaving look identical from the outside for a while), the three-question sort that separates relationships struggling to adjust from the ones showing you who they always were, and the actual scripts: the 20-minute weekly state-of-the-union, the answer to "you've changed" that has saved relationships, the voice-memo friendship downgrade, and the one artifact to hand family who "don't get it." Grieve what falls away. Don't apologize for growing. The most personal episode we've ever done. From NURSING.com. Keywords: nursing school relationships, nursing school breakup, boyfriend doesn't understand nursing school, losing friends in nursing school, nursing school changed me, dating in nursing school.
September 7 · 8 min
Everyone Cries in Their Car in Nursing School. Nobody Talks About Why.
There's a parking lot outside every nursing school in America, and in it, right now, a student is crying — convinced she's the only one. She's wrong. Jon Haws RN names the most universal unspoken ritual in nursing education: why the car (the first private space after hours of performed composure), why almost everyone does it and nobody says so (the silence IS the culture), the difference between normal release tears and the signal tears that mean it's time to get backup, and the two-word text — "parking lot" / "same" — that has carried more students through nursing school than any study guide. Every nurse you admire has a parking lot. The difference was never the crying. Note: this episode touches on student mental health; if you're struggling, in the US you can call or text 988. From NURSING.com. Keywords: crying in nursing school, nursing school stress, nursing school mental health, is nursing school supposed to be this hard, nursing student burnout, emotional exhaustion nursing school.
August 21 · 9 min
The Night Before Nursing School: What Nobody Says to You Out Loud
It's the night before nursing school. The scrubs are laid out, the bag is packed — and around 10pm the thought shows up, the one you haven't said to anybody: "What if I'm not smart enough? What if they made a mistake letting me in?" After twenty years and hundreds of thousands of nursing students, Jon Haws RN says the things nobody says out loud: why you didn't sneak in (admissions doesn't make sentimental mistakes), why feeling behind on day one is the design and not your deficit, why your "before" life — waiting tables, the office job, motherhood — counts as arriving with skills rather than starting from zero, why your reasons don't have to be noble, what to do when people in your life get weird about your growth, and why showing up scared counts completely. No study tips tonight. Just the truth, the night before. Save this episode — play it before every semester. From NURSING.com. Keywords: night before nursing school, starting nursing school scared, am I smart enough for nursing school, nursing school imposter syndrome, first day of nursing school, career change to nursing, nursing school as a mom.
August 19 · 9 min
The Nurse Who Noticed: How One ICU Nurse Caught America's Most Prolific Serial Killer
In 2003, detectives hunting one of the most prolific serial killers in American history needed something they didn't have: someone who could read an ICU medication log. The case came down to Amy Loughren, a night-shift ICU nurse. Jon Haws RN breaks down what she actually did as a clinical skill set — reading the data behind the patient, trusting a pattern over a person, speaking up inside a culture of silence, and being competent at 3am when nobody's watching — and why every one of those skills is what nursing school is building in you right now. Plus: the new true crime podcast from the NURSING.com team, MURDER ROUNDS — the healthcare killer cases told with real clinical insight, starting with the full Charles Cullen story. Follow Murder Rounds wherever you listen. Keywords: Amy Loughren, Charles Cullen, The Good Nurse true story, nurses who caught killers, nursing assessment skills, Murder Rounds podcast.

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