Stressing the skills on the CNA exam, any advice?

tomc5555 · Mar 18, 2012

I have my exam at the end of May. I'm not too worried about the written part, but I'm stressing about the skills. I get nervous of just thinking that someone is going to be judging me making sure I do everything right. Does anyone have ANY advice? I try practicing at school however there isn't really anyone in my class serious about passing the exam. I'm worried I'm going to do something out of order or miss something so simple. Any advice would be great!

. Ask your instructor for advice. We did and our instructor had a couple of practice days before the exam. Can you intern at a LTC between now and the exam. You would experience most of the skills and practice in a LTC.Practice is the only way to assure you know/remember the skills by your test date.Is there no one in your class you could practice with? If you both watch videos and refer to your book and practice I think you would be fine.Good luck.

missie1 · Mar 18, 2012

I feel the same way. I have my test in April. I just hope I remember the number of washclothes, towels and such I need for the skills I am doing. And remember which order to do them in. We've been doing clinical and it's totally different than the skill order I was taught...so that gets confusing too. Good luck!!

Julie19, CNA · Mar 19, 2012

Practice, practice, practice!

Oh, there's also some awesome CNA skills videos on YouTube. Check 'em out.

stargurl2006 · Mar 19, 2012

I'm not sure how it is in your state, but here it's pretty hard to fail. Unless you do something big (ie forget to wash your hands, forget to provide privacy, etc) you should be fine. I spilled "urine" while emptying the foley cath (I wasnt familiar with the bag they used) and still passed lol.

sappy · Mar 19, 2012

I have my exam at the end of May. I'm not too worried about the written part, but I'm stressing about the skills. I get nervous of just thinking that someone is going to be judging me making sure I do everything right. Does anyone have ANY advice? I try practicing at school however there isn't really anyone in my class serious about passing the exam. I'm worried I'm going to do something out of order or miss something so simple.
Any advice would be great!

I made flashcards with the steps on them! It also really helped me to know that (at least in NC) they will never take points off or penalize you for washing your hands too much. They WILL penalize you if you forget, though. With that being said, if you're in the exam and can't remember whether or not to wash your hands, just do it! Be confident and use common sense...you got it!

havehope · Mar 20, 2012

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Sappy-that's a great idea..sadly I never thought of using flashcards. Thanks!

dcfashionista · Mar 21, 2012

I am super nervous also. My instructor informs us that we will be doing 5 skills when I thought it was just two.

cndn_grl08 · Mar 21, 2012

I don't know about this exam, but I had to do something similar in my second year assessment class, where we had 5 stations and each station we had 5 minutes to read a scenario and assess a "patient" based on that, and we got marks for doing the assessments properly and knowing what the results should be and such. I failed the first time, and luckily we had two chances to passed, and I squeaked by the second time. I knew the information backwards and forwards and I failed strictly do to stress and freezing under pressure. So my advice is, although it's important to study the information, don't OVER stress about it, take time to relax and have some fun, and learn some relaxation techniques if needed. It really sucks to know everything and still fail because you couldn't calm down to do the skills. Good luck!