CPNE 2 quick questions

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Hello, i have 2 questions regarding the CPNE. I just receiced a date to test on January 14-16th in Mansfield Ohio. i have been studying for a while but seem to be stuck. First, how do you tie all the critical elements together? after you do your 20 minute checks, do you then continue to to all the areas of care that are checked for you to perform or do you do the 20 minute checks, leave the room and re-enter to do your critical elements? second, in the planning phase, do you use the "r/t and "aeb" in the problem or does that wait till the evaluation phase? I am testing under the 17th edition. sorry, just seem a little lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks John

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Specializes in LTC.

I graduated last year from Excelsior, I am not sure what has changed, but the way I had to do it was the 20 minute checks were done within the first 20 minutes of entering the room. The rest of your assessments you do the way the critical elements tell you. You only have have a certain amount of time to get it all done, so do your assessments timely following your critical elements for each assessments. The study guide will tell you if the elements for assessment has to be done in a certain order or not. You do not have to leave the room until you are done unless you need to get something. As far as the careplans go you only have to have the first part of your problem statement done at the beginning, you have to have the r/t and AEB done during the evaluation phase along with your rationale. Hope this helps, if you need anything else let me know. And all of this is the way it was done when I did it in August of 09.

Raine

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Specializes in HOME HEALTH.

i passed at mansfield the first weekend in october with no repeats. have you considered going to a workshop or using rob's dvd? i tried both, and i have to say, i think rob's helped the most. i think his website is robscpne.com or something like that. you could check it out and see what you think. i also believe his careplan video is free online.

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Specializes in pulm/cardiology pcu, surgical onc.

I graduated in 2008 and inquire about your free advising phone calls about the cpne. Make the weekly 30 min appt ahead of time and write down all your questions during the week that have come up or that you want clarified. The week before your testing you can have a daily call. Have you also asked questions on the Excelsior CPNE site? That was where I usually checked for answers to my questions.

I did all my things as quickly as I could with the least trips out of the room as possible. Sorry I don't remember too much more about specifics on the careplanning. Good luck!

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Specializes in NICU, ER.

Hello, i have 2 questions regarding the CPNE. I just receiced a date to test on January 14-16th in Mansfield Ohio. i have been studying for a while but seem to be stuck. First, how do you tie all the critical elements together? after you do your 20 minute checks, do you then continue to to all the areas of care that are checked for you to perform or do you do the 20 minute checks, leave the room and re-enter to do your critical elements? second, in the planning phase, do you use the "r/t and "aeb" in the problem or does that wait till the evaluation phase? I am testing under the 17th edition. sorry, just seem a little lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Congrats on getting to the point of taking the CPNE it is a long road to get there. :yeah:So your 1st ? about tying all the critical elements together, I used pneumonics. They were almost a necessity and you will be very nervous so getting those down pat is essential. I agree with the other posters that attending a CPNE workshop is essential. I am so glad I spent the $$ and believe had i not I would have failed. I learned how to memorize the critical elements and tie them all together. You will be given a paper that you can write down memory joggers to remember the critical elements and during the CPNE. And depending on how comfortable you are you can do elements and skip around and as long as you nail all the elements you will pass. If you look on the Excelsiors Electronic Peer Network and many people share study items such as mneumonics.

For your care plans there are 2 books EC allows you to bring with you to the CPNE to plan the care plan and you should find out the books and buy them asap. You can also look on ebay to find CPNE items like the wound in the skill phase, kits to work on your IM and Sub Q station and IV station. I would buy them from ebay. Excelsiors skill kit is way to much $, however I recommend buying the wound from EC since it is the same wound they will be using? All the best to you. And if you have any ?? please ask. Best of Luck~~

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Specializes in Wound Care, LTC, Sub-Acute, Vents.

good luck with your cpne. you should visit the distance learning forum here. there are tons of information regarding the cpne and ec there.

here is the link: distance learning for nursing - nursing for nurses

angel, rn

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Distant learning forum

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I highly recommend that you attend west coast Tina's CPNE workshop: CPNE

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to answer you:

first, how do you tie all the critical elements together? after you do your 20 minute checks, do you then continue to to all the areas of care that are checked for you to perform or do you do the 20 minute checks, leave the room and re-enter to do your critical elements? do the 20 minutes checks in the first 20 minutes iof the implementation phase. there is no need to leave the room, to go on to the areas of care. just go in the order that make most sense to you

second, in the planning phase, do you use the "r/t and "aeb" in the problem or does that wait till the evaluation phase? only the actually diagnostic label will be graded in the planning phase. you can't possibly really know what the aeb is until you observe and/or assess the patient, so r/t and aeb are not required until evaluation. but, it is a good idea to write what you may think they are in the beginning, so when you get in there you have something to look for. write in pencil for this purpose. the only thing that you must write on in pen is the mar.

my recommendations:

  • go over to the epn on excelsior's website
  • order robs dvds (i think a workshop is only needed if there is no way you can learn skills on your own, and/or need some type of validation of what you are doing)
  • get some flash cards
  • get a highlighter

when you get the dvd from rob, take the mnemonics that he give and go through your study guide, reading all of the critical elements and comparing them with the mnemonics, and the click and make sense together keep them. if no make changes so your mind the link the two. them write the aoc on one side of the card and the mnemonic on the other. repeat for all of the aocs. don't forget to actually read excelsior's explanation of each critical element in the study guide, they help to answer some questions that you may have , and clarify things. you may benefit fro some of the critical thinking exercises in the study guide, just read over them as you are going through the guide, if you feel like you have sufficient knowledge on that particular subject just skip that exercise and move on. if you see something that may be important while going through the guide, like a tip or something that you didn't know, highlight it and read it about 5 times to make it stick. if you come across any terms you don't know, or skills that you may be unfamiliar with just write it down, so that later you can google it are look it up in your fundamentals book.

other tips:

  • to help get a visual on the 20 minute checks, get the pcs recording form, and compare it to the 20 minutes checks. highlight the boxes on that page that need to be done for them.
  • rob's mnemonics are good because he tries to keep them simple. they are the critical elements, and they are what you document at the same time.

example:

neurological assessment - lamp

  • level of consciousness - oriented to person, place, and time?
  • anterior fontanelle under 1
  • movement - hand grasp and plantar or dorsifelxion
  • perrl - pupils equal round reactive to light?

documentation (narrative nurses notes):

pt, alert and oriented to person, place, and time. hands grasps equal, strong bilaterally. dorsifelxion strong and equal bilaterally. pupils are equal, round, and reactive to light bilaterally.

easy as eating cake. that is why i like them.

  • remember for injection meds - desired/have x ml = ml

versed ordered 50 mg, available in 80 mg/2 ml

50/80 x 2 = 1.25 ml

  • ask questions on the epn (occasionally faculty will answer but mostly other students) on through the myec message center (this is for answers strictly from faculty)

  • send ec a careplan everyday through you myec message center

  • schedule weekly calls with nursing faculty if needed

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