Help!

[Rexie68]

i'm an lpn to rn student and am taking the ace challenge exams for ob and peds on monday. has anyone else done this? what should i expect? i've been studying nclex questions, but am getting nervous!

thanks!!!

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

you are talking about the nln ace i exam (nursing care during childbearing and nursing care of the child) for pn to rn bridge. (http://www.nln.org/testproducts/rnpn_natlvalidation.htm#aceifoundations)there are ace study guides on the market. did you buy any to help you? i can give you some weblinks for ob and some links to information on developmental stages for kids.

• http://www.brooksidepress.org/products/military_obgyn/home.htm
  
• http://www.childbirths.com/euniversity/mainpage.htm
  
• http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_london_maternal_1 - online student companion website for maternal-newborn & child nursing by marcia l. london, patricia a. ladewig, jane w. ball, and ruth l. bindler.
  
• http://www.nsu.edu/nursing/formbook/ob_hp_phy_exam_form.doc - obstetrical history and physical exam form
  
• http://www.nsu.edu/nursing/formbook/8_point_assessment_worksheet.doc - postpartum assessment
  
• http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/obstetrics_and_gynecology.htm - listing of emedicines topics on obstetrics and gynecology
  
• http://www.aafp.org/afp/990501ap/2487.html - interpretation of the electronic fetal heart rate during labor
  
• http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/impac/images_c/normal2.gif and
  
• http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/wha/labor.gif - good pictures of cervical effacements and dilatation during labor
  
• http://www.baptistonline.org/health/library/chil3048.asp - child health and development. has a page for each month of the baby first year of life with good listings of the developmental tasks they should be performing. also has links to common childhood illnesses.
  
• http://www.chkd.org/healthlibrary/content.aspx?pageid=p02629 - normal newborn behaviors/activities

the basic strategy for answering critical thinking (application type or nclex) questions is as follows, you must:

• know and consider the normal anatomy and physiology
  
• know and consider abnormal anatomy for the disease in question
  
• know and consider the resulting signs and symptoms when the disease occurs and how they proceed from mild to fatal - each sign and symptom can be related back to the pathophysiology of the disease
  
• know and consider how the doctor diagnoses and treats the disease in question
  
• know nursing interventions for the signs and symptoms you are being asked about
  
• know the steps of the nursing process and what goes on in each of the steps and consider how they are affecting the question you are being asked
  
• know and consider the principles behind the actions being done - there are many kinds of principles: principles of nursing, principles of biology, principles of chemistry, principles of physics, etc.
  
• read the stem of the question carefully and answer that because the test makers try to trip you up by distracting you with conflicting information they give you in the answer choices that sounds good but has no relationship to what the question is asking for
  
• ask yourself "why" a patient is experiencing some sign or symptoms to get at the underlying problem. nursing like other disciplines treats the problem/signs and symptoms.

you should review the information and links in this thread as well:

• https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/looking-test-taking-stratagies-224581.html - looking for test taking strategies (on the nursing student discussion forum)

[Rexie68]

Well, I took the tests today....wow....I've been out of school for 18 years and even though I studied a lot for the exams....they were tough! I'm not sure if I passed or not....hopefully I'll know the results in the next week or so.