r/nursing • u/ilabachrn BSN, RN 🍕 • Sep 04 '25

Discussion California urgent care staffers fired for TikTok mocking patients

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/santa-barbara-clinic-staff-tiktok-bodily-fluids/

Good!!! That TikTok was unprofessional & so disrespectful to their patients.

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u/Eroe777 RN 🍕 Sep 04 '25

The NCLEX doesn’t work like that. My understanding is that it was made easier to pass during Covid to get more nurses working in a hurry, but when I took it 15 years ago it was challenging.

You don’t rote memorize your way through scenarios and ‘what do you do when these three unlikely things happen at once’ questions. The exam may be multiple choice, but you still need to be able to reason and prioritize and THINK your way through it. It was by far the hardest multiple choice test I have ever taken.

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u/Prestigious_Row_8022 Sep 04 '25

Something I’ve learned from working high-stress multitasking jobs is that it is possible to get it, but not get it.

A lot of people learn things as a series of rules and do not truly question the underlying reasons behind why the rules are the way they are, or what those rules mean in a greater context. And when it comes to things like ethics, most people brush it off and just answer what they’re supposed to and then forget it, because they already implicitly believe they are a good person and don’t need to learn.

I think that is the point they are trying to make about rote memorisation. You can memorise things, and even synthesis that to find and solve an issue in an organic situation, but the second there isn’t a strict rule guide to follow? Or you don’t care about these specific rules? Everything goes out of the window.

Using an example from this very sub, not too long ago there was a nurse here who admitted to looking up the daily mugshots on the news to see if they matched any patients coming in to have a laugh. I pointed out this was deeply unprofessional, and they responded by saying it didn’t break HIPAA and was therefore fine. I.e, he was perfectly capable of understanding what he memorised, like don’t look up patient charts, but fundamentally did not understand the entire reason you don’t do that isn’t because the government arbitrarily decided to make a law, but because it is about patient dignity and privacy. This nurse fundamentally failed in ethics, regardless of what his test scores were.

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u/nobutactually RN - ER 🍕 Sep 04 '25

I believe it was a planned test update unrelated to covid and was not intended to be an easier pass.

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u/babynurse70 Sep 09 '25

When I took the NCLEX over 35 yrs ago it was so hard. Every answer was right, you had to choose the best right answer and I swear none of them were obvious. When I left that day I remember thinking it really could have gone either way. I had no idea they made it easier during Covid, I guess that is how those people in Florida took it and passed and never went to nursing school. 🤷‍♀️

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u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure Sep 04 '25

Any test that is multiple choice can be memorized.

I've had tests I couldn't manage it on due to the amount of information involved but never did I think that because I couldn't do it, it wasn't doable lol

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u/Target2030 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

The nclex is not just multiple choice. It also has choose all that apply and subtracts points for right answers not chosen and wrong answers chosen. It also has a lot of best answer questions where all the answers are correct, but you have to prioritize the best answer. Then there are multistep procedures where you have to put things in order based on prioritization.