CEN Review

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Feb 14, 2006

Lippincott's Q&A Certification Review: Emergency Nursing is okay, but it's a little disappointing to catch as many errors in it as I have. A reference to 'external otitis media' is one of my favorites. It's all in question and answer format as well, so if you need something a little more structured, it's not the way to go.

KatieBell · Feb 14, 2006

ENA has put out the core curriculum which is 800 pages of information, but also has put out a study guide which apparently is quite good. In addition if you are an ENA member, you can look in the on line journal and they have 5 questions for each month...so printing those out can give you a good little review of about 65 or so questions from last year ish...

Mosby has a review book and there are some others out there. I've been disappointed that none have been reviewed recently, and so there are interesting references to bretylium, and omissions of some newer medications...

PammyRN,CEN · Mar 11, 2006

I used the Ena's CEN review, and found it very helpful. I felt the test was much harder than boards. The Ena's Cen book was the best, I must have bought all of the review books, Do not use Cen success, it is not helpful at all and it put together poorly.

Good Luck !

Rio, ASN, RN · Mar 12, 2006

I found the core curriulum from the ENA a great resource. The outline format provides a fast reference and is very succinct.

There is also an on-line practice test that is very good.Sorry, can't remember where i found it. Good Luck, get a good nights rest before the test and take your time. As i remember there was plenty of time to take the test.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Mar 12, 2006

The ENA core curriculum was frighteningly detailed, and concentrated on careplanning, that in actual life wasn't so useful.

I took a 2 day CEN review course, and everything that was on the test was in the study guide they gave us. Got lots of practical tips from teh other nurses at the class too.

EricJRN, MSN, RN · May 8, 2006

Update: I found a couple of good resources that helped me to pass the CEN exam - just thought I'd pass them along for future CEN candidates.

Emergency Nursing Secrets (part of the Secrets Series of books from Hanley & Belfus) was helpful to me and I thought it was well-organized. Some of the information is just trivia, but most of it is quite good and to the point.

Also, for some of the less common disease processes (like Ludwig's angina), it can be helpful to go to www.emedicine.com for pretty detailed but systematic explanations.

All in all, a tough exam, but doable, even if you don't yet have the minimum experience they recommend.

EmerNurse, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2006

Did anyone use the BCEN's practice test to see how they were doing? Was it predictive of your score on the actual CEN?

Been studying for ages, but got the date now and I'm NERVOUS - it's NEXT WEEK!

Any thoughts, ideas, encouragement, tips all greatly appreciated.

Not been this nervous since the boards.

:nurse:

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Oct 7, 2006

The practice exam gave an accurate prediction in my case. If you're an experienced ER nurse, I'd try not to sweat it too much.