When reflecting on the SMART goals I set at the beginning of the semester, I think I made a solid improvement. I started implementing short breaks whenever I felt I was losing focus. I noticed that before taking a break I was getting more questions wrong, where after taking a break, I often got more questions correct. Another thing that I noticed was that I became more efficient when taking these tests. Towards the beginning of the semester, I was taking a lot more time on questions, and was overthinking and going back and forth between answers. Now, I do have shorter test times, but I feel that I am using my time more efficiently and not spending too much time on one question.

I gained mastery with content gaps through looking at what my weakest categories and topics were in the focused ATI reviews. I think the adaptive assessment worksheets helped me the most, as I really had to think about why I picked an answer, and why it was correct or incorrect. I think that doing this also helped me break down questions easier. I used the dynamic quizzes to study for ATI exams in the past and I will definitely do that again for the peds and maternity ATI exams, as those were pretty helpful for me in the past.

            Throughout this year I feel that I have gotten better at being mindful of when I need a break and being able to manage my time in a way that doesn’t overwhelm me. One of my goals was to practice better time management and I feel that I have found a few good ways to do that. Writing everything down I need to do during the day and when I need to do it in my planner or on a checklist helps me stay on track. I found that using a checklist in clinical also helps me manage my time well for doing vitals, med pass etc. Overall, I think I have gotten better about managing stress which will help me as a nurse, and I will use my time management and mindfulness as a nurse every day. I will also work on being mindful of how I am doing when working with patients and recognize when I need assistance. I will also continue to use the strategies I learned this year when starting to study for the NCLEX.