What's up everyone? Doctor Zishan here today, we're
going to do a different type of an episode.
Today we're going to talk about what NCLEX High yield is, who I
am, what I do for the company, and how this company came to
inception. Why NCLEX High Yield?
Why did we see such a necessity for nurses and nursing, and when
did it become and when did it come to fruition?
So NCLEX High Yield is a board review course for PNS and RNS,
and the journey was actually from myself having issues with
passing my boards. People ask all the time.
Well, Doctor Zee, you're an MD, you took a completely different
board exam. You've never taken the NCLEX.
And I posted people this question.
I go, well, what's the difference between heart failure
for an MDAPA&NP&RNAPN? Is heart failure different?
No. Maybe what we can do and can't
do is a little bit different. But the concept, the content,
the signs and symptoms of treatment, understanding, the
pharmacological implications, the education for the patient,
those don't change. We're A-Team.
Everyone As a medical professional, we come together
as a team. So I want to talk about before
NCLEX high yield, let's say when you were in high school or
middle school, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew
up? So yeah, I actually knew from
the beginning that I was going to go into the medical field.
It was, I don't know if it was something that in our culture,
I'm South Asian. So in our culture it was kind of
like embedded in my head that you have to be a doctor, lawyer,
engineer. So it's just one of those things
that you had to choose one. I always was fascinated with
medicine from, I mean elementary school, moving forward, planned
accordingly. I did have a little.
I had a little. I had a huge, huge, huge
affinity towards music. Music was my passion, from DJ,
ING, producing, touring, a lot of cool things that I I
experienced as I got into high school and college.
That became my passion. But ultimately, I knew that in
the long run, medicine was going to be, or some sort of facet of
medicine was going to be, my ultimate goal.
And why, Why did you choose MD versus anything else or is that
just a? Different.
Place. That that was 100%.
Parents, parents, parents I I really have no preference of.
As long as I was in the medical field, I explored everything and
it was, again, it was my parents, my, my family.
That was very influential in my decision to to go into becoming
an MD. They obviously were immigrants.
They were not educated as what they provided me to get my own
education. They sacrificed a lot for me to
get my education. So in order to make them proud,
in order to for us to have, you know, somebody that was in the
medical field, I I, you know, I kind of honored what my parents
sacrificed. I respected it and ultimately I
just wanted to make them happy. And I knew that that ultimately
whatever I would do, I would, I would put my all into it.
So MD was what happened. So, OK, so you're talking about
how you were in residency and then you started tutoring.
So how did all of that kind of give us the timeline of, OK, got
into residency, started tutoring, then NCLEX high Yield
was born. How did that all work?
So I the journey was quite, quite extensive.
From graduating Med school to failing my board exams.
I failed my step 1/5 times. And then I had to kind of
rethink my whole approach, recalibrate my entire my entire
mentality. And when I started figuring out
that content is a big deal and I finally passed my boards with,
you know, new testing strategies and I started passing second
boards, third boards, I decided to take a leap into a program
that was in Chicago and I was transitioning from extern to
resident. And throughout that transition I
was in a place where again, I needed income because cost of
living was expensive. Everything was kind of shut
down. So I had to find a way to make a
supplemental income, and that was by tutoring.
So I didn't just tutor nurses. I tutored PASI, tutored Med
students. I tutored a lot of different
people just because again, content is content and
understanding. The cardiovascular system, GI
system, mental health, things of that nature is pretty universal
when you look at it. And I started tutoring because
during COVID I could do it via Zoom and when I had one nurse or
one PA or one Med student kind of pass their boards and do
well, it just became like this word of mouth.
But obviously the population of nurses is significantly higher
than P as and nurses, I mean PS and and doctors or Med students.
So ultimately it became more nurses, more nurses, more
nurses. I got PNS, I got RNS and I just
started tutoring them. They started improving on their
cue, banks. They started passing their board
exams and it was just a word of mouth.
And then on my downtime during, you know, being in the hospital
and, you know, outpatient, I ended up just booking student
after student after student. And that was kind of, I guess a
side hustle really. It was really a side hustle for
me just to kind of put food on my plate, help pay for rent.
At that time, I or I didn't have a car in Chicago, so even
getting to getting to the hospital or to outpatient Ubers
were very expensive if they were available during COVID because
this was June, July of 2020. Yeah, that that is really
interesting because I think COVID kind of changed your whole
life. It really did.
I mean, I think for a lot of people that did it, it kind of,
it made you realize that. Or at least for me, it made me
realize that I one was not content being in the hospital.
My own mental health was deteriorating, which is why I'm
so big on taking care of myself, right?
Mental health, physical health, it all kind of it's a big deal
to me. And I was deteriorating being in
a situation where I was not happy and and alone and things
that ensure so. My students, especially my
nursing students who are so compassionate and so grateful of
what? Especially when I helped them
pass or they start to understand topics.
It was it was definitely. It was a game changer for me.
COVID really did change my entire life.
So you're you're tutoring this is for another company at this
point, and so you end up dropping out of residency, you
come home and then what? I had to make a tough decision
right as as I talked to my family, my friends, my loved
ones, they really even my program director to be honest
with you, my program director was like, you know what, maybe,
you know, you have. And I would tell him, like, you
know, I'm doing this tutoring and I really enjoy it.
It's like have you ever thought about education?
And my family was obviously seeing me struggle without, you
know, being in Chicago, being alone, everything shut down,
being on the psych ward where during COVID there was no sense
of of personal space. You know, patients would come
right up to you. They didn't wear masks.
They came off the streets. A very unfortunate situation.
But you know, these are people that were probably exposed to
COVID. So it was something that like it
was, it was taking a toll on me. And ultimately it was a decision
that I had to make. And when I decided, OK, well I
can pursue education and teaching versus being in the
hospital come end of 2020, I decided I'm going to pursue a
different path and that path was education.
Maybe that was my Forte as far as what I was meant to do.
And I say this to my students all the time.
I went from saving lives to changing lives because the
amount of people that we've changed their lives is is
phenomenal. And I was once I because at that
time you had to quarantine if you travelled, you had to
quarantine if you were exposed. So I moved back to Vegas from
Chicago and I quarantined for at that time it was 14 days.
And when I quarantined I realized that tutoring was cool.
But what if I created all this content into a course and for 14
days, those that actually know me, that has sat with me in
class, those of you that have watched me develop things, I
create things. I feel that my creativity comes
out in these situations where I come up with things like Ask RAF
Ash needs Nipah. These are all things that the
method. These are all things that came
to fruition as I started developing the course and 14
days of being in in solitude, well you have to keep your mind
busy. Again, mental health and I put
that, I put that time where I was unable to see anybody into
creating a full blown course that had proven previously to my
students that this content, these test taking strategies
actually help them pass and I utilize the same content and
testing strategies and I turned it into a course.
So quarantine. 14 days of quarantine really did help me
develop a course versus focusing on just tutoring.
Yeah, and you talk about, you know, all these things you came
up with. Everyone kind of knows Doctor Z
to to teach all these complex systems and situations and make
them really easy. How did you develop that skill,
do you think? And why do you think it's
important in the medical space? Being being very honest, the
reason why I teach all of these different subjects is because of
the fact that I'm by far not the smartest person, period.
The pneumonics that I come up with, the testing strategies,
these are all things that made life easier for me.
I was again, if if everything came easy to me, I wouldn't have
failed my boards five times. I had to figure things out.
I had to truly take a step back and understand.
What I realized was I couldn't memorize stuff.
And a lot of people memorize especially.
I mean, you're talking about whether it be nursing school,
whether it be PA school, whether it be, you know, MDDONPA.
Lot of people get into these programs and it's like, OK,
cool, I'm going to learn cardiovascular system, I'm going
to learn Med surg. I'm going to learn fundamentals
and then you test on it and then you forget about it.
But the boards, you know, any boards, any board exam is
comprehensive. They're going to make you learn
about everything or they're going to test about everything
that you've learned. It's not like, OK, I did cardio
and then I forgot about it. You've got to recollect all that
stuff and apply it now. So when I started realizing that
I I had to myself make adjustments and I was able to
utilize what I did for myself and apply that to
PNSRNSPAS&MDDOS because ultimately they were, it was all
the same content testing strategies, same thing.
So ultimately that was kind of the, the idea behind it when I
started doing it was just I had to understand every subject, not
memorize it. So once you understand
something, it's hard to take it out of your brain.
I mean once you understand things like heart failure or
endocrine, I mean these, they come to you naturally.
When you memorize it, you're like, what was it?
What was it? What was it?
And that's when you haven't
truly understood it. But when you understand it, it
all just kind of makes sense. And you you're able to, you're
able to explain it. When you can explain or teach it
yourself, you know everything. Right.
And and so I guess kind of getting used to that was
probably one of the challenges you faced when first starting.
But were there other challenges that you had when you were
starting NCLEX High Yield just in general content wise or
getting students and how? How have you?
How are you overcoming those if you're still facing those
challenges? So I do believe that there are
there were a lot of hurdles with M class high yield.
Let's be real. Any business that that has
started any any venture that you want and this this may be for
the entrepreneur in you as well too for those of you that are
listening as an entrepreneur you there there were things that I
literally I I didn't know what I was walking into.
I'm not really too savvy on certain social media platforms
on other ones I'm good realizing that you have to get your name
out aside from word of mouth get people in in front of you do and
create content. Realizing that you know we have
an on demand portion of our course.
You know, somebody had told me one of our, you know, one of our
board members at the time had told us or you know, Doctor Z
put out what you have. He's like it may be cringe
worthy, but just put it out and you can always make it better.
And as you get better and better it will reflect.
And now I would say our On Demand is arguably one of the
best resources that we have. It's, you know, along with our
life course. But if you see the the evolution
of how we've done everything, it was quite the track and it was,
it was scary. I mean, I gave up something that
was guaranteed to, something that was a shot in the dark.
So again, I had to go in. I had to give up.
I couldn't balance the two. I had to make a very tough
decision. And once I made that decision, I
had. I didn't look back.
I just went forward and I created and created and created.
I built A-Team around me, an amazing team around me that that
sees things that I don't see. And when you see things that
when other people see things that you don't see, it's it just
builds for the company, for the experience.
And ultimately our goal is, is to make more and more nurses.
Our reward is every time a student comes to us and said I
passed, whether it be first time or some of our other students
that have been out of school for three decades, 4 decades, you
know, testing up to 26 times. And we are changing their entire
lives. And that to me is such a reward.
It was great to write scripts and and discharge patients.
That was great for that period of time in my life.
What I want to leave was an impact and I want to leave a,
you know, I want to leave my mark on this earth by changing
people's lives. That will happen for generation
after generation after generation.
It gave me my purpose, which is why I tell my students, remember
your purpose, Your purpose is everything.
And my team and I, we sit down and there is no right or wrong.
It's just what's the best for our students and and so
fortunate to have all these people around us, including our
students. Our students are a community of
people that help each other out and are so compassionate towards
each other, towards their cohort.
If they're in one of the courses, they're just it's just
phenomenal. We created a community and that
was the goal. It's not just oh, I come in, I
do the course, I do my test. No, it's a community.
People build lifelong bonds. People change are are having
their lives changed and it's just it's phenomenal what we've
what we've created. I I couldn't ask for anything
better. So to kind of add to to to the
purpose and everything that we value, NCLEX High Yield was
featured in an article and it talked about how you're
investing back into students by bringing them on board.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I truly believe that giving back is one of my biggest
things, whether it be charitable, whether it be giving
back to our own students in the form of if they use our
resources and you know, like our on demand or our live course,
you know, we want to offer them the ability to teach and pay it
forward as well too. So employing, you know, some
again for me, education was more my Forte than actually going
into our practice or practicing. And a lot of students actually,
they gravitate towards the education portion of it.
Maybe while they were, while they were in their life force
and their cohort, they were helping other students out or
they were kind of leading, you know, a study session and
they're like, wow, I really enjoyed this.
And they come to us and they're like, hey, doctor Z or to our
staff, Nicole. And it's Brittany.
You know, I would really love to get involved in teaching,
tutoring, maybe doing group stuff.
And we are very open to it. We we allow, we advocate.
Why not? You took all of the stuff that
we've recommended the live course you went through the on
demand, you passed your boards, your license.
You're now a nurse. Why not have a supplemental
income and or an income while helping other students out that
were in your same position? Because they're going to relate
to you because you just took your exam.
So that was one of the things that we were very big on.
That's not even just employing our previous students, but also
helping them in real world, in the real, in the real life real
world. Because students that are in our
life course, the ones that are, you know, that we see and we
take attendance and we actually interact with them and they
interact with us. I'm able to remember these
students and we offer them letters of recommendation or
referrals or references because we want them to get the best job
possible. And students that come out of
our program, people from hospitals and clinics, they call
our company, they e-mail us and they reach out to us saying,
hey, we heard they took your program or they're in NCLEX high
yield. How do we get more people that
have taken this program? Because they come out really
strong and they know real life, they know their content, they're
confident and it's just something that we pride
ourselves in. So how you know you have this
team? How do you stay updated with
medical information or even the boards just because things are
always changing? How do you guys work to kind of
stay up to date? So that is, it's a very tough
thing because boards have changed from 2020 when when we
started in 2020 PN and RN boards, they were I believe they
went up to like 260 questions, right.
And then during COVID, because of the fact that we didn't want
people in the testing center and they were wearing masks and this
and that, they dropped it down to the Max amount of questions
you would get was 130 and then you know and then it evolved to
now to 150 with now next Gen. So there in in the short span of
you know 2, 1/2, three, 3, 1/2 years, the boards itself have
changed significantly. However content does not.
If we start to see that there's more information that is high
yield. For instance, I started seeing
with the NCSBN and from just you know talking to students and and
researching that, you know certain subjects are starting to
pop up more and more on the exams.
We know the ones that are super high yield that are you're going
to see then they're ones that were like OK, wow, the boards
are really starting to like this topic more and more.
So it's like a daily, it's a daily conversation with our
team. We're constantly, constantly
evolving. People that are in the course
will see oh, we should add this in, We should add that in.
We create new content. We add in practice questions so
we can apply all the knowledge that we use.
I write practice questions for QQ Bank and whether it be Next,
Gen. or traditional, these are things that I create and I show
students this is how the boards are going to ask them.
And I tell my students stink like a test maker, not a test
taker, but it's a team effort for us to create all these
different practice questions and content and notes.
We don't believe in creating something once and then saying,
OK, well we already did it, that's it.
Even something that I taught a previous course may be changed
or have in addition to it in the new course.
So it's it's definitely a constant evolution, you know,
and I definitely have to stay on top of everything.
So does my team. I mean we all kind of have our
own checks and balances if you will.
So it's a it's a it's a great thing to have a good team.
Again, if you're an entrepreneur or you're trying to start
something of your own, whatever it may be, make sure your team
is strong, your team understands your vision, and that's a big
deal. As everyone can hear, there's a
lot going on at NCLEX High yield.
So how do you, how do you stay productive with everything
that's going on? So there's for me, it's a big
deal to I think mind, body, soul is kind of like, I know it's a
very cliche statement. Taking care of my mind is a big
deal. How do I take care of my mind?
I I don't think it's one or the other or the other for me.
Those of you that that have been in the course and or have been
with me on Zoom or have seen my free resources or listened to
the one of the podcast episodes, I do this breathing technique at
the end where we just do like 60 to 90 seconds which is deep
breathing, which gives us a nice little piece of mind, piece of
our soul. Just kind of like hey, words of
affirmation. Definitely big on mental health
as well too. Making sure I physically take
care of myself as well too. So I'm mentally I'm big on
vitamins and minerals. I've gotten into what's called
nootropics, which are huge for me because there's so many new
ingredients that are being studied that just focus on
anxiety and stress. Things like Ostroganda, you
know, things like thymine. Things like just natural
vitamins and minerals that are contained in so many great
products. So taking my vitamin regimen is
a big deal to me. I also love taking nootropics,
and as I've experimented with many different nootropics, I
found one that because I'm very particular on taste and flavor
and how I consume them. So I found a really, really
amazing one that I use aside from all the vitamins and
minerals that I use. You know, as far as
multivitamins, I found one that was just strictly A nootropic
that kind of keeps me sharp every day.
Just kind of. I start my day off with a
little. It's like a tiny little bottle
of shot. It's called Magic Mind and I
don't think it could be more appropriately named, if you
will. Like it really does like some
sort of, I mean, I just feel sharp and like it's so funny
because my staff, my, my, the people around me are definitely,
you know, like you are definitely on something.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm taking my nootropics and I'm just like
go, go, go, go, go. And all right, let's create this
and you go do this and you do that and I need to do this and
it's just it's so productive as well too.
So I've shared it with a lot of friends and family and I've got
nothing but good feedback. And the taste is phenomenal
because I'm very particular about taste.
So it's a great taste and a easy way to consume it.
It's maybe kind of like a a little, like a little shot of of
a nootropic. I mean, it's really simple.
Take it. Are you?
Taking it in the mornings, I take it every.
Morning. Yeah, it's definitely something
I take. So my my daily regimen is when I
wake up, I take my vitamins and minerals, I take my nootropics,
I take I do, you know, I'm big on working out.
I get on the treadmill, get that cardiovascular, get that blood
circulating When I get a chance, I try to lift and play
basketball and and Magic Mind actually has that ashwagandha in
it. And they've been so kind because
I use them so much. They've been so kind as to offer
our students actually a discount because I'm such a huge fan and
and a consumer consumer of it that the Magic Wand team was
like, you know what, Doctor Z, since you love it so much, how
about we offer something to your students And I was like, yes,
please. So they were, they gave us a
really cool offer where you get up to 56% off if you subscribe
to it, which is kind of what I do.
And then that's in the next 10 days.
Or if you want to do a one time purchase, they'll give you a 20%
discount. All you got to do is type in
when you get to the discount code part Nclex NCLEX all caps
lock and then the number 20 so Nclex 20 and you can get it at
magicmind.com/nclex magicmind.com/nclex I.
Think I need to try that too, yes?
Absolutely. Do you do you exercise in
addition to all these vitamins and eating healthy or 100?
Percent, I do think it's kind of funny because I utilize my own
mnemonic needs. So it's actually kind of funny
because as I've started to to take care of my mind, body and
soul, especially with all the things that are going on,
especially how committed we are to providing our students the
best of the best. It's something that we put, I
put into my or implemented into my own life.
So those of you that don't know the pneumonic needs, it's
something you need to know for the boards, it always holds
true. So the the statement is you
always want to take care of your patient's needs.
N, EE, DSS. So the first one is nutrition.
Well, I talked about how I use vitamins and minerals.
I love cooking, so making healthy food is a big deal to
me. It's a good pastime.
It keeps me, it relaxes me at least, and then exercising.
So yeah, I love doing cardio, playing ball.
I love getting out for a walk on a nice day, taking my little
puppy out, you know, doing, you know, any type of weightlifting.
I, you know, I like, I personally have a trainer that
that I 'cause I don't know everything.
And I kind of like go to this person occasionally.
I do look at stuff on YouTube, free resources as well, too.
So yeah, I mean, I I love staying healthy because
ultimately when I'm healthy, I have no want or will to even
consume things like alcohol, even if it's like a happy hour
going out with people. It's just kind of like all that
hard work that I did. And then the next day I'm not
feeling like 100% up to par. I'm not a smoker, so that's not
something. So DSS don't smoke, but I'm huge
on sleep. So all of those things, like
nutrition, exercising, no alcohol, obviously I don't
smoke. But and then sleep.
All of those things lead up to good sleep.
And when you get that deep sleep, you'll be surprised at
how much more productive you are that next day.
Whether it be work, whether it be studying, whether it be your
own side hustle, whatever it is, all of those things really do.
They're a great combination to make you the most productive you
can be. Yeah, I.
Think that's like a pneumonic? That's great for the Nclex.
But yeah, we use it everyday in life and we don't even use it,
so we have. You have students all over the
globe, So what are you doing to make sure that your content,
whether it's free resources or paid or tutoring, how is it
accessible to all of these students across the globe?
So that's a great question because I mean we have people
that are in complete different time frame time zones and the
ultimate hurdle was the live course.
How do we get them into the live course if they want the live
course, which is why we focused on making the On Demand, which
is you can log in from anywhere around the world and watch it at
your own pace. The most up to date version of
our content test test, taking strategies, practice questions,
is all On demand. And the reason why we've created
this On Demand is for that purpose that people have work,
people are in different time zones, people are all across the
world and they need to do things at their own pace.
It's unfortunate when we see students that are like, well, I
can't make it, I can't make it, I can't make it.
And I'm like, well, you've actually got everything on
Demand. And we are constantly updating.
I mean, just in the last course, we've updated 3 sections of the
On Demand and within 24 hours, which is unheard of.
But our staff, you know is just on top of it, making sure that
the world sees the most up to date content strategy test,
taking skills, practice questions.
So that was kind of the way that we had to re refocus our
objective because we do have a lot of people that are across
the globe trying to become licensed PNS or RNS.
And then we also put a lot of stuff up on on YouTube, on
Instagram, on TikTok on Facebook.
Our Facebook group is growing and we add content on there.
We always advocate people to subscribe through our Instagram,
Facebook, YouTube, these are all free resources.
We've had people that that utilize just our free resources.
I mean it was one of those articles in Yahoo Finance,
Business Insider, MarketWatch that you know their free
resources are amazing that we we pride ourselves in that actually
help people pass. So yeah, just creating content,
making sure that our on demand which is like over, I mean it's
approaching like 65 hours of content that with notes and
everything that we are on top of it providing the most, not too
much where it's overwhelming, but what we need to be efficient
in studying. So we're not wasting time on
stuff that's not important for the boards.
So what part about teaching nursing students?
What do you find the most fulfilling about teaching?
The word it, It clicked. The word it clicked when when
people. There's a couple of things.
I mean the the big, the big take away would be when students are
like it clicked. I also see students, whether it
be in the life course, whether it be on our free weekly zoom,
whether it be in comments that they say doctor Z, Doctor ZI.
Wish I would have learned it this way in school.
And look, I didn't come from a great background in school, but
when I got into my clinicals, rotations and beyond, I was
taught by the best of the best. And what I learned throughout
that process was understanding and and being patient and
showing people in different ways of of learning.
And you know, not a lot of people know this, but I did go
on to get a certification in mastering medical teaching.
So I went on to get a certification specifically in
mastering medical teaching in all fields of medicine, nursing,
PAMDDO from Stanford, School of Medicine.
So I was very fortunate to have gone through a program from a
very prestigious School of Medicine being Stanford and
learning how to teach medical education.
So I pride myself in teaching people visually from visual to
auditory to reading and comprehension that I see them
say wow, I finally understand it.
And when I ask them questions and they're able to repeat it or
they themselves are able to create board style questions,
I'm like wow, you all are just getting it, you're getting it
and you're going to be just fine passing these boards.
So very fulfilling when they say doctor Z, heart failure clicked
or all the differential diagnosis of of you know, GI or
mental health like I understand, I understand.
Now remember I understand the difference.
So big deal to me when I see students understand and when
they pass, well, that's the icing on the cake, yeah.
So can you can you talk about some?
I know every pass is a great pass, but do you have any
memorable passes from your students that pass using your
program? I I.
Do and and again I think you you prefaced it correctly.
Every pass that I hear or I read about is is is definitely
special to me. There are some that that really
stick out to me because of the hurdles and the resilience of
these patients. I've had a patient or a patient.
I'm sorry, I'm back in doctor mode.
I've had a student that that actually was out of school
nearly 40 years. This one actually I can share
this this student's name because she was so kind as to share her
story on our YouTube channel and I believe on our podcast as well
too. And her name is Nurse Rita.
Nurse Rita had was kind enough to allow me to share her age and
and her journey and in an interview disclosed that she was
68 years old and she had been out of school for almost 40
years. Worked two jobs one as a
security guard at night time and during that night time security
guard kind of one of those ones that work in a booth would be
sitting there studying listening to to the on demand listening to
my podcast, listening to my YouTube channel, whatever it was
it she was very resilient and determined.
Not only was she out of school for 40 years, she took out a
credit card maxed it out in order to pay for the course
which we didn't know about. And when we heard that we were
like wow, this person didn't ask for any help just kind of you
know was wowed and and she says this was wowed by the way that I
taught and she was she said that Doctor Z, you worked for me and
I know I don't work for everybody but I did work for
her. Not only that she had taken the
exam 21 * 21 * 200 is I mean we're approaching 4000 plus
dollars plus programs, all the other programs that you took
plus schooling. Imagine the amount of debt that
was incurred over this 40 year journey.
And after taking the course, I think she was in the course for
the course was about a month. She studied for another
additional month and a half to two months and she passed and
became an RN after 40 years and 21 attempts.
That was very memorable to me because of the hurdles that she
had to to overcome. I've had other people that
suffered suffered brain injury, traumatic brain injury where
they were in a coma for for months on end and came out and
we're so wowed by the field by by you know potential you as
future nurses or you that are practicing nurses.
That was it was so moving to her that she was taking care of so
well that you want to go into the field.
And lo and behold, after, you know, being in a coma and
traumatic brain injury and having, you know, adopted four
children and things of that nature, working a job as a
single mother, passed your exam, you know.
And then my record to date is one of my students took it 26
times, used all types of resources, finally came across
and collects high yield and was like Doctor Z, you work for me,
there's Brittany. You work for me.
And that was, it was it was amazing to see somebody after 25
attempts on the 26th attempt pass their exam.
I mean these are, these are journeys of resilience.
These are people that that really stuck out to me, I guess
because, you know, I love my students that come out of school
and they're like Doctor ZI started watching you while I was
in school. And I came out of school and I
was, I took your course and boom, I took the test like a
week later and I passed. And I was just like, wow, that
shows me that you were proactive.
So those stories as well stick to me.
So it's just, I mean there's some that really stick out to me
and then there's some that I mean, but every one of them is
truly special. We love reading them.
I get, you know, text messages and and emails from from, you
know, the companies, from staff that are like Doctor Z.
Look at this, look at this, read this, read this.
And it's just, it's it's heart warming it.
It again shows me my purpose. So those are my my most of.
Does it feel real? You know what?
Sometimes I do have to pinch myself.
I was very programmed to go into residency and and do come out
and, you know, work in the hospitals and start a clinic.
I was just what was what was programmed into me.
And now people see me and they see the real me.
And I think that there you know, I I had to I.
I'm a very different type of an individual.
I like to express myself. I like to keep myself very
simple. You know people that know me,
I'm a hoodie and a hat type of a person.
You know, I do have piercings and tattoos, but I do pride
myself in my education. So I think that nowadays it's so
cool that people can express themselves whether you know how
it may be in their life and and they can still have such a great
profession. So yeah, it is very surreal to
me. I I still pinch myself every day
that and I say this all the time.
I get to do this, I get to this. It's because of the belief from
my staff, the students, people that have gotten through the
course that speak so highly of us schools that ask us to speak
and do keynote speaking, people that just believe in in who I am
and what we provide, what N + I yield provides so very humbled.
So to kind of wrap it up, what and I know you've kind of talked
about it throughout, but what is some key advice that you want to
offer to anybody that's working towards taking their exams soon?
Yeah, that's advice, the biggest piece of advice.
And and it may not be just one thing, because I think there's a
culmination of different things that need to be taken into
account. When we are taking a board exam
is first and foremost you have to remember your purpose.
You have to remember why you started.
It is very easy to delineate from what your initial goal was
when you start to get stressed out, anxious, overwhelmed.
So take a step back. I tell my students all the time,
every day that you study, take a little post it note or in the
corner of your notepad. Just write down, you know, 1235
reasons why you started your journey and and use that as your
motivation to overcome any obstacles.
The second piece of advice is that this is a board exam.
This is nothing like you've seen before.
It's nothing like you've studied for before.
So you know, I tell people all the time, it's not a final exam,
it's a board exam. This is everything that you have
learned or should have learned in the process of your
education. So your approach has to be very
different. And I think the last big tip
that I will give is don't compare yourself.
Your journey is your journey. It doesn't matter.
I don't care if you know, for me, I didn't care if somebody
passed six weeks out of their second year of Med school and
passed step one. I had to go through all four
years of Med school to pass step one, and I had to fail it five
times. But my journey was my journey
made me appreciate everything that I earned throughout that
process. I didn't let anybody put me down
or hold me back. It's it's easy for friends and
family to be like, well, what's going on?
Why aren't you passing or why haven't you taken your exam yet?
Or when are you going to take your exam and and that kind of
messes with your your mental health, your mental state of
mind. Stay strong, utilize all those
tips that I just gave you you know then I mean realistically
and not to even sound like so redundant but needs, I mean
literally take care of your nutrition, exercise if you can
you know eliminate and or decrease your alcohol, you know,
obviously don't smoke. I'm never going to say otherwise
and get good sleep. These are things that are going
to help you feel good the next day and as you see progress
you're going to feel more and more confident.
So these are things. Don't compare yourself because
your journey is your journey and when you pass it's going to be
the most rewarding experience ever.
So just stay focused and and continue on and everyone will be
just fine. Just find what works for you,
Don't overdo it with resources. Find one thing and stick to it.
And again, it's may not be me, but definitely fine.
There's so many great resources out there.
Find what works for you. Thank you, Thank you for
sharing. Absolutely.
Thank you for for the interview. I appreciate it.
I love you on your own. On your own podcast I.
Know, right? I love having people understand
who I am and where we started because a lot of people really
don't know where NCLEX, how you came from, and who I truly am.
So with that, I appreciate you interviewing me.
Nicole and I look forward to listening to this podcast.