CEN review course but not taking the exam?

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My hospital claims to be offering to pay for a CEN review course by Jeff Solheim, who I have read good things about. I would have to pay for the course, the hospital would reimburse me, the money I get back would be taxed, so I will already be out some money. It is unknown if the hospital will cover the cost of the exam itself. I have been in a very small ER for 7 years and am now in an ED that sees about 3500 pts/month, so I am seeing things I have never seen before.

Would going to a 2 day CEN review course help my knowledge level in my everyday work? Or is it truly just a course to prepare you for the exam? I am tempted to take the course just to learn more about how to take care of ED pts, and then not take the test (or at least not until I find out if the exam cost is covered, which will be after this review course is already over)

Thanks for any insight

Jessica

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Have you taken TNCC. I found that to be an excellent course. I haven't taken a CEN review or the test but I'm interested in it.

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Specializes in Emergency, Med/Surg, Vascular Access.

I would kill to be able to take a cen review course by Jeff Solheim in the convenience of my own facility! you would learn a ton, and the knowledge you'd gain would help you become a better ER nurse whether you take the test or not.

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I have taken TNCC.

It is not in my facility, it is about a 3 hour drive away. So I would also be forking out money for one night in a hotel.

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I have taken a web based CEN review course by this person. I found it very informative and thorough, and helpful both in preparing me for the CEN exam and in consolidating the information I had been studying prior to taking the test. I do not work in the ER, but my opinion on the course is that it was excellent, and that it helped me to become a better nurse. I would have found the course just as valuable even if I had not planned to take the CEN exam.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

If you don't plan on taking the exam, I'd shop around and find other ways to get teh education your looking for. You can Google it, check on youtube and even watch the lectures given by national "experts".

There are to many unknowns in your case. I'd start cheap and my own time and pace first. These programs are designed to review the stuff you do every day and reinforce the things that are high risk, low volume test items.

Personally I'd try to get them to spend the $ and got to either the ENA nationalconference or NTI by AACN.

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I have taken a web based CEN review course by this person. I found it very informative and thorough, and helpful both in preparing me for the CEN exam and in consolidating the information I had been studying prior to taking the test. I do not work in the ER, but my opinion on the course is that it was excellent, and that it helped me to become a better nurse. I would have found the course just as valuable even if I had not planned to take the CEN exam.

I wanted to add that the course I took included clinical knowledge relevant to a wide variety of medical conditions that present to the ER.

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I took the cen course by jeff solheim. It is a good course, ill give it to him, but dont expect to pass the test just by taking the course.If your hospital will pay for it, then take it. Youll learn something

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