Published
Cardiac surgery certified, a sub-certification to the CCRN, Critical Care certification.
Check out Manual of Perioperative Care in Adult Cardiac Surgery, 5th Edition
I took mine years ago. I found that you could brush up on typical psychosocial and therapeutic communication questions just to get in that mode but majority of the clinical questions are quite straightforward that if you already work in a cardiac surgery ICU and have done so for a while, it would be easy for you to pass. Compared to CCRN (which is a requirement prior to CSC or CMC), it is much much easier.
I did not study especially for the CSC because I figured if I was working in the cardiac surgery ICU I should be able to pass. :) Anyway, you can buy for like 4 bucks from the AACN some practise questions for the CSC. I did that, and noticed that some exam questions were verbatim from the purchased questions.
It's straight up cardiac surgery stuff. Chest tubes, inotropes, pressers, cardiac indexes, all that stuff.
PS-This exam does not believe in milrinone. Know your dobutamine/dopamine!
jk2185, BSN, RN
1 Article; 34 Posts
I'm taking the CSC pretty soon....what did all you fantastic people that passed use to study?