Acute Care Nurse Practitioner ANCC board exam

painnp · Jul 16, 2012

Hi. I took the ANCC exam about 3 weeks ago, and I understand how you feel. I used Barkley's review CD's and study manual, and it was a huge help. That was actually ALL I studied, but I spent about 5 weeks going over it and over it...

I passed the exam, and found that what I got from the review was really good. I have heard that Fitzgerald's is really good too. Spend time studying, but give yourself time to breathe, too. Good luck!

cfranmo · Jul 22, 2012

Hi everyone,

I wanted to leave a follow-up comment to my post to let you know how the exam went---I passed!!!

I would definitely say that the Fitzgerald course (taught by Sally Miller) adequately prepared me for the ACNP boards. I also had access to the ANCC's ANCP review manual...here is the link if you are interested in purchasing it: Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Review and Resource Manual - 1st Edition - American Nurses Credentialing Center - ANCC. The manual not only provides about 40 questions in the back of the book, but it also provides access to about 50 other questions that can be accessed if you decide to purchase CEUs for the book. The questions were great, and because they are created by the ANCC I think they provide good insight into the content of the exam.

Another book that I purchased was the ACNP review book by Sally Miller...here is the link: Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Certification Study Question Book, Second Edition - Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc.. The book is great, and has 300 questions in it. The book also provides an access code to an online site where you can practice the questions on their website (This was nice when I didn't have the book with me).

I would make sure to brush up on nursing research and therapeutic communication---these are things that were very prevalent throughout the exam. I had a friend who took the Barkley review...she enjoyed it and thought that he went into research and policy a bit more than the Fitzgerald review.

I think that if you cannot afford to purchase a review course, you should definitely get the review manual, and the Sally Miller book. If you go to the ANCC's website, you can print out the test outline so that you can look up the items you are not familiar with---if you take the time to check out the outline, there shouldn't be any surprises for the actual exam. The ANCC website also has about 20 questions on it, these are helpful.

Let me know if you have ANY questions...I would be glad to help out...I know that I used all of the help I could get!

-C

allnurses Guide · Jul 31, 2012

Congrats :)