CMC Certification

[smn90]

Hi all!

Just passed my CCRN recently and I plan to get my CMC certification next.  I plan to use my PASS test questions to prepare.  In reviewing the CMC Handbook provided by AACN, I see that there are noncardiovascular topics in their test plan.  I was curious to know if this is accurate or if it's the same test plan that was used for the CCRN.  For thosoe that took the CMC, were there noncardio questions on your exam?  Also how did you prepare for the exam?  

[SteezyRN, BSN]

Passed the CMC with a good score recently and yes there are non-cardiac questions on your exam, not many but some. I purchased and used the cardiovascular nursing education association (CNEA) study questions. In my opinion a lot of what they were teaching on their CMC section was way to in-depth. The greatest resource is for sure the AACN study question, even though there are not very many. The other rescources are the cardiac and multisystem sections from the Barrons CCRN study guide and the Mometrix CMC secrets study guide. I would do the AACN questions and reference my book to the topic of the question while studying. VERY HEAVY on hemodynamics and swan numbers. Outside of that, I felt the most difficult part was like long term prognosis questions. For instance, who is best candidate for heart transplant. All in all I thought the CCRN was harder than the CMC because of how diverse the CCRN question were. The CMC is definitely more in depth about cardiopulmonary care, but you know what you're going to get. The CCRN was too diverse and broad IMO.

[JzK CCRN, BSN, EMT-I]

Passed CMC ...

I bought Nicole Kupchnik ace CMC book. Used it as the main source. Colleague gave me his CMC notes from review course and I edited the book based off the notes.

Then did AACN QBank, made sure that I hit every question and edited book even more.

Finally sat for the exam, q1, q2, q3, at q5, I'm sitting, blank in computer thinking why TF am I here ... Got crappy news the morning of the exam so it was tough to concentrate on exam when mind was wondering. For decades, ice trained my self 1q = 45-50sec. So having this extra buffer time gave me an opportunity to get up and walk around. During practice exams,.I used to bangout 90qs under an hour, here, I was almost at 1:45 when was done. Ultimately, I passed. As my intensivist said "you passed, that is what matters to me and what should matter to you!".