CEN certified... CCRN?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Emergency.

After 2 years working in ER, i am now CEN certified... Im now looking for my next target, the CCRN

for those who are dual certified, which test was harder? I found the CEN exam to not be as hard as i was expecting it to be, maybe because i was well prepared? Considering we do not really do arterial lines in my ED dept, i think thats basically what i need to concentrate on? Any advice would be great. Thanks

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

The CCRN was by far the hardest test. Since I did ICU and Critical Care transport, I thought I was prepared, but it was harder than I thought. For the CCRN exam you need to know the science behind everything, not just what it is and what you'd do for it. Get the Vasparis CD and listen to it. Take your time, study steady. Besides the A-line, IABP and suck, you need to really understand hemodynamics, Cardiac output, PVR as well as "simple" CVP readings. You need to know DKA and HNK inside and out.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I agree with the above poster. I found the CCRN exam to be more difficult than the CEN. Lots of hemodynamics, not just a-lines. Good luck.

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Specializes in med-surg, step-down, ICU/CCU, ED.

I agree 100% with the above poster. CCRN was definitely the harder of the two, but the Gasparis videos helped tremendously. Still, that is one test I would never want to re-take again. I was mentally fried after taking that exam!

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Specializes in ICU, Trauma, Emergency.

OP, How did you prepare for your CEN?

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Specializes in ICU, EMS.

As the other posters have said, the CCRN exam is much more difficult. You need to know hemodynamic parameters and how to treat them (Swan-Ganz), IABP, etc. They are looking for you to demonstrate an ability to think beyond the basics. My suggestion would be to get the Pass CCRN book/CD and use that to study from. The Vonfrolio CD's are getting dated but are still quite useful depending on your learning style. Good luck!

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Specializes in FNP.

I thought they were both pretty easy, but if it can be called "hard," CCRN was harder I guess. It was more specific anyway.

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I've been looking at a Kaplan CCRN review book that I managed to snag for free off Amazon. It's saved on my laptop and was intended for Kindle although there are PC and smartphone versions. Anyway, is the test more detailed than the review material listed in the book? It's bound to be because a lot of the review material seems fairly fundamental.

Note: I haven't read all of it. I've merely skimmed selected components.

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I HAVE BEEN STUDYING THE PASS CCRN CD AND GETTING HIGH 90"S OUT OF 150. ALSO STUDYING LG HEMODYNAMIC MONITORING. i ALSO SCORED A 75 % ON THE SELF ASSESSMENT THROUGH AACN BUT STILL WORRIED THAT MY SCORES SHOULD BE HIGHER. I HAVE BEEN A NURSE FOR 10 YEARS AND HAVE BEEN ICU NURSE FOR THE LAST TWO.....I AM SCHEDULED TO TAKE MY CCRN NEXT WEEK.....CAN ANYONE SEND ME SOME LAST MINUTE ADVICE? THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR INSPIRING STORIES!:lol2:

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i am so old (all together now, "how old are you?") that i took the second ccrn test ever given. i had been working a coupla years in a really excellent icu with cv surgery, medical, surgical, respiratory, and neurosurg critical care, but i was scared to death and tried to study the core curriculum really hard, but i kept thinking it would be more difficult than the cc read, and i didn't do ccu so 12-leads and such sorta had me in knots. scared to death because nobody else in our unit had done this-- we were the first-- and they all knew we were taking it. a friend and i drove the hour to the testing center and stressed the whole way. i opened the book and the first question was..."what is the purpose of peritoneal dialysis?" i put down my pencil and looked around the room and asked myself, "am i in the right room?"

now i know they put easy questions at the beginning to get you to relax, but this was ridiculous.

since then, i have taken a number of certification exams. without exception, i have found that the ones related to the jobs i have held for a few years and mastered were not difficult. that's the idea-- if you aren't doing a decent job at it, you have no business being certified. so if you are doing a good job, you're gonna do ok. the op took the er exam and didn't find it so bad, because s/he was an experienced er nurse, but s/he is stressing because of lack of experience with some things. i never took the er exam because i didn't have enough confidence that i knew enough to be an excellent er nurse.

basic test-taking tactics:

always take the choice that makes your pt safer, faster.

if that's not in the mix, take the one that gives you more information or has you acquire it.

never take the answer that has you turn things off to another specialty-- they want to know what you do.

in specialty exams, know the common misconceptions and pitfalls that people who aren't as good as you screw up all the time :D.

know broad theories and systems, and how to apply them in specific situations.

read everything you can get your hands on. hell, once i got a question right based on having read a drug advertisement-- i had never heard of the stuff or the rare metabolic derangement it was used for, but by god i could recognize them in a list of four choices.

last, if you get a question that just cannot be answered, remember that some items are being tested for future iterations of the exam and won't count anyway. example i always remember: "what is the most expensive condition? a. sci ; b. tbi ; c. hiv ; d. burn." there's no way to answer that, because each is so individual.

have fun c it!

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