Just took TNCC... words of advice

[Alexx_xox]

Hey everyone,

I know before I took TNCC I came on here looking for other people's experiences and I wanted to see if anyone had any insight or words of advice for me before taking TNCC.

Since I couldn't find many, I wanted to come on here and tell everyone a little about my experience.

First and foremost, I passed TNCC on the first try and it was not at all difficult, in my opinion. I do consider myself a fairly quick learner, but regardless of how quick you learn, I feel like any new nurse can easily pass it.

First off, your TNCC instructor will really stress the ABCDEFGHI assessment for trauma patients. KNOW THIS!! Without a doubt know this to 100% accuracy. The easiest way I learned this was by constantly writing it out and the repetitiveness of doing so helped me memorize it quite quickly.

Secondly, be able to perform it verbally on a patient and by stating everything while doing the assessment. These are obviously sim men that you are doing your practical exam on so you cannot assess them like a regular patient. Instead you will ask you instructor what you are seeing. For instance "Now I am assessing patency of airway, is there any edema, vomitus, blood, loose teeth or debris noted." You will literally do this throughout the entire assessment so just be sure you feel comfortable doing this.

There are certain items that are double starred that you cannot miss or forget and ENA has them double starred on their study guide.

Honestly, if you can study and know the study guide they provide then you're 100% fine. Also, for the written exam, its similar to NCLEX where you are expected to think of everything in an ABC type of order.

I studied the night before the exam and did really well. No need to stress, just study your stuff and go in confident!

XO Alex

[HannahMarine30]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have recently been looking into TNCC as well, just to help expand my skills base. My only nursing experience has been on a cardiac ICU floor, extremely busy but not many traumas unless we took overflow from the MSICU next door. I found that trauma patients were the ones that interested me the most, call it morbid curiosity I guess. I'm transitioning over into an ER position (haven't started yet) but I know they don't get many, if any traumas...Would you recommend this training course anyway? I have ACLS/PALS and all the other mandatory certs but I'm thinking perhaps this would be a good one to add.

Do you think it's good nursing knowledge that could be helpful in even a small ER or later on down the road?

Thanks a bunch!