Arizona Certification Test Questions

lorelei1973 · Sep 12, 2009

http://www.hdmaster.com/testing/cnatesting/arizona/azformpages/azforms/ArizonaCandidateHandbook.pdf

This answers your questions about testing. You have 35 minutes and five skills. I really recommend perusing the headmaster website http://www.hdmaster.com for more information.

Like you, I always had desk jobs until I completed the CNA training in August. Before I did it (I've worked in a hospital for five years) I always told the nursing staff I could never handle what they deal with. And I meant it. But guess what, I can, and you can. I work in a psych facility and started on a dementia unit, which is akin to LTC. After working in the criminal unit, I realized I wanted to work as a CNA in that area. No bed changes, no diaper changes, occasional feces smearing and other gross things, sure, but mostly just psych stuff. Still I had to go through the CNA training including the clinicals in LTC.

Sometimes it's very challenging to deal with what's right in front of you, but you deal with it because of just that -- it is right in front of you, you're there, and this is a person you're dealing with. Could be your mother or your father, grandmother or grandfather. And if you have that instinct to be a caregiver, that will certainly take over. You can do this!! Best wishes.

Ronald Danneman · Sep 12, 2009

First thank you for the reply, I have along with my wife been caregivers in our home for almost five years for my mother with alzheimers. She is like a little kid, can not see any more, wears depends, needs to be fed, changed, bathed, etc and makes no sense but she gets our care and we sacrafice big time for that. But I feel a calling for this even thou the money is not what I am used to at all and even thou I wish I had done it years earlier and gone thru nursing school also but if I can do LPN I may if not I will look at this as it.

I just am not to sure of working in LTC but did home care for another 91 year old lady for months and loved it.

Well I am going to put my best foot forward and hope I can pass the testing in front of the board that is what scares me more than anything, I know I can do the written but in front of testers are scary .

Thanks

Ron

Marlene39 · Sep 14, 2009

Ronald,

I just finished the RSAA training at the end of August and it was great! The facility is small for the number of students they accept and there is only one bathroom (for about 50 people) so don't drink too much and don't wait for scheduled breaks to go or you'll be standing in line the entire time. You shouldn't have too much trouble with clinicals since you have some experience. Just make sure that when you go to take your skills test you do all the steps even though you don't in clinicals. Also, if you have time left at the end of your test give a list of possible things you forgot to do on your skills. What I did was just go through each skill verbally and said "I washed my hands before and after the skill, I pulled the curtain before and after, I locked the bed brakes, adjusted the bed to proper working height" just in case I might have missed one of these steps. I got a 100% on the skills protion so I think it worked. You might also want to be a patient for a previous test so you can get the feel for how it works. It's not nearly as scary as you might think. The nurses want you to pass.

Also, I beat myself up until I got my results worried that I'd done something wrong and I hadn't. RSAA has a very high pass rate, so they really prepare you well. I would strongly suggest that the week in between class and clinicals that you go in and do the study hall with Diane. She helps you learn the skills and is really patient about it. In class you only practice the skill once which is not enough to know it well enough for the skills test. And take as many practice written tests as possible. This was by far the hardest part. The tests in class were very simple and didn't require studying (as long as you complete the workbook), but the actual board test was much harder. They questions are worded very differently (similar to the NCLEX is what I've heard) and you need practice in how to answer them. Often times there were two right answers and you had to pick the best answer. I only got a 90% on that test and I got mostly 100% on the class tests. I also checked out a couple books from the library with practice tests.

Best of luck on your test and please feel free to email me if you have any questions at all. I'm happy to help!!

Marlene :typing

Marlene39 · Sep 14, 2009

I am wondering who has taken the Arizona certification practical exam recently. If you have how was it as I understand you only have 30 or 35 minutes to get 5 things done correctly.
I also wondered on the exam test do they tell you one at a time what you have to do or do they tell you all 5 things at once and you have to remember them.
Do you have to do the steps in order or just do the steps not leaving any out?>>>>>>>>
I forgot to answer these questions for you. You do have 35 minutes to do the 5 tasks, but one is always hand washing which takes very little time. I got occupied bed, TPR (vitals), antiembolitic stockings, and mouth care and finished with 10 minutes to spare (and go over every step I might have missed). Occupied bed is the longest skill and I still finished in time. I also heard from a classmate who was a "model" for a test who said they gave people extra time if they had a lot of long skills, so don't stress too much about time.
They do tell you the 5 tasks at the beginning of your skills test, but they walk you through them in order of what they want you to do so you don't have to remember them yourself. Just do them one by one and don't fret about the ones to come.
Steps should be done in a practical order, but not necessarily in the book order. You will realize right away which ones are in an order that doesn't make good sense. As long as you do the step it counts regardless of the order in which you do it. If you forget a skill step, as soon as you remember tell the nurse that you want to go back and do the step. She will tell you that she will mark it as done and to continue where you left off. Then do the list of possible missed steps at the end if you have time :wink2:. I think the only way to really fail is if you miss one of the required steps (those in bold in you yellow booklet).
Marlene

Ronald Danneman · Sep 14, 2009

Thank you kindly for the replies, I appreciate it a lot. I would email you for some other information but do not know how to get your email as I am not to swift on the site yet.

Did you go thru the Mesa Arizona training RSAA? If you can tell me how to find your email or if you find mine and email me I will email you further.

Thank you again

Sincerely

Ronald Danneman

Mesa, AZ