NCC and the WHNP Exam

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Aug 22, 2012

Can anyone tell me wait times for NCC? Does it really take 4 weeks for them to process an application? Or 21 days after the exam to send out certification? I have a job riding on this whole process and have never been more frustrated. Compound that with the fact the job is in California who is notorious for being slow to license and I may lose this job opportunity in the process. I really don't understand why it takes that long and why it can't be done electronically the way NCLEX is. It seems completely inefficient.
Sorry for the minor vent, but I am trying to find out what a realistic time frame is here.
Thanks!!

Did you graduate from a program in California? I thought you could already apply for a certificate to practice as a nurse practitioner without national certification if you graduated from a CA Board of Registered Nursing-approved NP program. If that's the case you can get both applications rolling at the same time.

RNSallyanne · Aug 22, 2012

No, I graduated from Vanderbilt and currently live and work as a RN in Kentucky. If it was just the application process, it wouldn't be a problem, but with the length of time NCC is saying it can take and then add even the temp licensing time in California it will be more than 8 weeks. They need someone right away and agreed to wait until October 1, which is only 5 weeks away.

Thanks!

nlt284 · Oct 20, 2012

I recently applied to take my NCC exam, and curious how long it ended up taking to get your approval? Also, what did you think about the difficulty level of the exam? THanks for any information!!!

arbs84 · Oct 22, 2012

I applied for NCC exam on September 28, 2012 and did not receive my eligibility letter until October 20!

Dembitz, APRN · Oct 23, 2012

I think they send out eligibility letters twice a month, on the 15th and last day of the month. It's described somewhere on the website. I got mine fairly quickly (sent in late May, received letter in June 15 mailing). Took the exam in July, should and could have scheduled it sooner. You get results onsite, but it did take a while to get the official certifying letter.

nlt284 · Oct 23, 2012

Why do you think you should have scheduled sooner? Was it easier/harder than what you thought?! Any pointers? SO nervous!

Dembitz, APRN · Oct 24, 2012

Easier than expected. About 5 questions in, I was pretty sure I was going to pass. I finished in under an hour, but I'm FAST and a very good standardized test taker.

Dembitz, APRN · Oct 24, 2012

nlt, I don't have enough posts to PM. Here's the long response I wrote out for you.

Ok, so background. Academically, I was close to a 4.0 student, and I'm one of those people who's freakishly good at standardized tests. I really thought the content was overall pretty straightforward. Again, they're not out to trick you. It's an exam testing you on entry-level content for the field, and unlike the adult primary care exam (I'm also ANP-BC), it's on a pretty discrete set of information.

I did the primary care section in the Kelsey book and listened to the Fitzgerald CD, but I didn't focus too much on this area. Look at the exam breakdown -- primary care is about 7% of the test, so maybe 10ish questions. Studying all of primary care for ten questions is fairly ridiculous. Know the common things and how to manage them, but spend the bulk of your time on normal and abnormal ob/gyn. Also, make sure you know some basic things about what can go wrong with boy parts, as that's also fair game in as much as it's a problem that has an impact on female patients (so, STIs and conditions that cause infertility). Definitely know contraception and who's a candidate for what, vaginosis/vaginitis dx and tx, normal and abnormal pregnancy changes. The pharm stuff, at least for me, was mostly related to women's health, so I didn't have may/any questions about primary care drugs. So basically, my experience lined up exactly with the candidate's guide on the NCC website.

Let me know if you have other questions! There aren't many of us who take this exam, so there's not a lot of information out there.