[Caroline0074]

I'm taking the test in two days!!! Studied my butt off for this. I'm a U.S. trained nurse and on top of that its been 3 years since I completed the nursing program in Texas. I had a lot to review. A question. Just wondering if anyone remembers if there are a lot of questions on lab values on the CRNE?
Passed the NCLEX the my first try 3 years ago. Hopefully it'll be the same story for CRNE. Wish me luck!

[janfrn]

I'm not entirely positive about this but from the comments I've heard from coworkers who took it recently and from the quick look I had at a study guide, I'm going to guess NOT. The majority of questions I read in the study guide (lent to me for a few minutes by a coworker trained in the UK who is writing on Wednesday too) revolved around what you would focus on when a "client" comes into your community health centre and has a chronic problem. Could just be that the section of the book I looked at was concentrating on that angle, or maybe not. Anyway, my coworker was told at the class she was sent to by our employer that 2/3 of foreign trained nurses (all lumped together, nothing specifically related to fluency in English or anything) failed the first time and that nurses who had ten years or more experience also tended not to do well, because the exam wants textbook answers, not real-world ones. Having said that, I wish you the best of luck... I'd probably fail!

[Caroline0074]

wow, thats not too encouraging. Guess I'll do my best and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

[janfrn]

How good are you at "playing the game"? The answers are going to be very theoretical and in-a-perfect-world. I think you'll be fine as long as you remember how textbooks word things. There are some short answer questions on the exam too, and you can often wring a few more points out of those! If you passed the NCLEX on the first try you'll be okay. Don't worry.

[Caroline0074]

I think all nursing exams are like that. But if I have to take it again, I will take it again. By the way, where do you practice? I am a NICU nurse too!!! I worked at Texas Children's Hospital before moving to Canada. If I have my way, I would like to work at CHEO In Ottawa.

[janfrn]

Originally Posted by Caroline0074

By the way, where do you practice? I am a NICU nurse too!!! I worked at Texas Children's Hospital before moving to Canada. If I have my way, I would like to work at CHEO In Ottawa.

I'm working in the PICU at the Stollery Children's Hospital/University of Alberta in Edmonton. I haven't worked neonatal in a long time, except for our little cardiacs, (and floating!!!) of course. CHEO would be a good place to work. My oldest daughter was born in Ottawa, so there's a little fondness in my heart for our Capital.

[Caroline0074]

Just curious, how do you view your relationship between nurses and doctors in your unit? Do they value nurse input?

[janfrn]

There are times when nursing input is valued and times when it's not. Basically, if I disagree with something, then my opinion isn't worth much... Funny that. In our unit, the physician progress notes written by the peds residents are verbatim the nurse's report in rounds. If I'm talking too fast during report, they'll ask me to slow down or repeat myself so they don't miss anything. I rarely see any of them ever put hands on a patient except to put in lines. Even our attendings only do a sketchy exam. And I have serious concerns about that practice, because we have a lot of very junior nurses who haven't been around long enough to recognize the subtle changes that signal impending disaster. I often wonder how many "events" result from an over-reliance on nursing assessments. All that aside, we have a couple of attendings who are very interested in what the nurse has to say, and they listen, they discuss and they act. Then we have a couple... well really maybe only one... who's not going to hear anything a nurse says, because it comes from a nurse, and what do we know? I think they've come to realize though that if I call them to a bedside, there's really a problem and they'd better get their butts over there!

[bluedanube]

I wrote my exam yesterday and I was very tired and dizzy by the end of the day. We had 121 MC and 32 short answer questions AM and the same for PM..
Lots of questions from Health Promotion, patient teaching, abuse.
Not much lab values at all! Yes the questions are very textbook like and many times I had to reread the questions because I did not get the core of it.Try to sit close to the window where there is lots of natural light(remember it is a long day) and avoid being too close to the front because when people are coming out with there papers to hand in at the end of sessions it can be very disturbing. I had to ask for another table because of that.
I had no clue about passing or failing the exam and if I fail it I do not even know how to get better after all that studying. At the moment I am relieved that it is over and the rest will come in 12-15 weeks.

[abcotta]

exactly what you said bluedanube!!! I thought I was alone to feel like this! I felt blue after the test and have no idea if I pass or fail.