Clinicals - FL state test

[Petty2618]

well i just failed my clinicals on my CNA for the state of FL. I got a perfect score on the written. I even appealed, but told to resubmit with, of course, more money. just wanted to hear from others if this has happened to you and/or suggestions on getting through on the second try. i've already invested well over a thousand dollars on trying to break into this career, and very discouraged.

[IHeartNursing321]

I took my FL CNA exam in September '12. What I suggest is to go over all of your 21 clinical skills again, try them on your friend/relative since you will be doing the skills on an actual person (as you already know). Also, if you didn't know, during the clinical portion of the exam, you can actually "fix" your mistake..as long as you do it before you say "I'm done." Like one of my skills was mouth care...and half way through it, I thought "OMG I'm not wearing gloves!" So I looked at my examiner and told her that I messed up by not wearing gloves. Then I proceeded to do the skill all over again. Everyone gets nervous so I am glad they let you do this. They for sure check for hand washing and taking off gloves the proper way. I hope I helped...good luck! :)

[WannaBNursey, ADN, ASN, RN]

I failed the first time and so did my brother. I actually know many people who failed the FL skills test the first time. Practice, practice, practice. It's the same thing as nursing clinical skills lists (incase you plan on going into nursing). Use rote memorization when practicing. They have the skills list online. You can print it out and practice it. I suggest you actually read it out loud to yourself and just memorize the words and the order they come in and then put it into action. There are 21 skills, you need to perform 3 of them plus demonstrate appropriate hand washing and indirect care. Now that you know how to test and have been through it before, the pretest jitters should be out of the way. When you retake the clinical portion, you go before any of the new applicants so that you can get it out of the way. Another plus. Good luck to you! I'm sure you'll do well on your second round. Don't give up!

[kikkidee6]

I failed my NY state test 2 times and thankfully passed the last time just practice practice practice

[Spooner2013]

Hi Petty2618

I did the test in mid January this year. I passed the written test easily but failed the skills test. What made me angry were two things.

I failed the skills test fair and square because I made three errors. However the examiner listed heaps of other errors that I definitely did not make. What's more, she actively prevented me from checking the temperature of the water with the patient on one occasion. She told me at the sink that I hadn't asked the patient to check the water temperature, but I hadn't even walked away from the sink yet; I hadn't had a chance to offer it to the patient yet! I think she knew she'd mucked up and threw the book at me after that out of some sort of small mindedness. This was made even worse when the other girl tested with me made plenty of errors, only some of them she corrected, and she passed! As I said, I failed fair and square but I have no confidence in the system anymore because my result and the other girl's was also so arbitrary.

The second thing that peeved me was that when I registered to re-sit the test, I had to pay to have my security check done all over again (they'd just done it 4 weeks earlier). That is, I had to pay to re-do the test AND pay to re-do the security check. On January 1 they introduced a new rule that you have to have a photo taken as part of your security check. Why I have to pay for a full security check? Why shouldn't I have the option of only paying $15 for the additional photo?

Anyway, I'm practicing, practicing, practicing to take the skills test again this week. Most of the time I don't have anyone to practice with. My husband is great and is helping me out on the weekends but he travels out-of-state each week (Virginia this week coming). I'm not American, so don't have friends or family here who can be my willing victims the rest of the time. My souvenir teddy bear is getting his dentures cleaned and catheter cleaned several times a day. My webcam has been converted into my examiner. I record my tests and "mark" myself afterwards. It's a slow process and not very effective (but better than nothing). If you (or anyone) live near Tampa and want to practice the skills test with me this week, reply here and we can organize something.