CEN

It's usually recommended you work a year before taking the exam, but it's not required. If you work in an urgent care and not an ER it may not be relevant to your job.

We don't see nearly as much as the ER but we do get a lot of patients that are inappropriate for the UC. I was thinking of sitting for it so that I could eventually move into an ER position. Also, it would force me to learn more.

The number of pts you see doesn't really matter. Bottom line is there is a huge huge difference between an urgent care and an ER. Anyone can take the test, but please realize it doesn't make you an ER nurse or give you ER experience.

I very much realize it doesn't make me an ER nurse I was just interested in increasing my knowledge in emergency medicine.

It depends more on your knowledge than your experience, I think. I would study a book, like Sheehy's Manual. Having the real world perspective would help but is not necessary. Your ER and location will shape your experience, and it probably won't be well rounded. I took the exam before I had ever worked in the ER, but I had about 10 years paramedic experience at the time. This covered all my trauma and a lot of medical problems, and my nursing training filled in the rest.

You don't have to have any experience, and it's really just a lot of studying. I bought boswell's, some CEN test books and Sheehys.

Good luck to you! :) Hope it helps you score and ER job!

Your urgent care experience will help you a good bit if you are doing splints, basic pediatric conditions, STD's, fractures, and skin conditions. There were several questions about such things. Study the rest. If you are a good studier/test taker, you should do fine.