passing CPNE without a workshop

Excelsior now offers online workshops! I did their Skills and Documentation. I wish I would have done their care planning one too. That one was a little pricey, but a guy who was testing with me took it and said it helped him immensely. Skills I could have done with out. Some people raved about Skills and that's why I took it.

I also did Sherri Taylor's online workshop. At first I thought it was great. However, her videos were on average 35+ minutes long. Too long for my ADD brain. She never agreed with any of my care plans that I submitted to her either. It was odd, I'd submit the same care plans to Dr. A at Excelsior who said they were great, but if they weren't "Sherri's favorite" for the areas of care assigned, she didn't like them. In the end, it irritated and confused the crap out of me. I also used Rob and I'll just say I NEVER watched his DVD all the way through.

In the end, the only thing I wasn't confident with were those stupid labs! I had no one to watch me and I had no idea if the techniques I had been doing were correct. Maybe by the time you test, Excelsior will put a workshop online for that! The online workshops are expensive, but the feedback you get from the staff make it worth it. You have to put a lot of effort into it to get your money's worth.

At the actual CPNE I struggled with time management all the way. I'm not sure if attending a workshop would have helped me with that or not. I created grids, attempted to 'get in and get out' with the patient and nothing seemed to flow!

There's tons of help and free resources on the EPN. You can also have weekly advisor calls with Excelsior staff. I highly recommend Amy E. and Civita for those. I treated the CPNE study guide like a bible. It's looking pretty rough these days! I spent about 8 weeks studying. 2-10+ hours a day. I didn't work at all for the last 4 weeks. No kids, just a husband who dealt with my insanity. :)

I'm just wondering who here has passed the CPNE without doing a workshop. There are none that I can find in my area, so I doubt I'll be taking one when the time comes. Any advice on how to pass without the workshops!?

Thanks!! I'm a ways off, but any info will be helpful!:)

I passed with very little time to prepare (32 days). No workshops. I take that back, I did about 2 weeks of Sherri's online workshop. I paid 147.00 for those 2 weeks. She has a lot of good information; but a lot of NON-EXCELSIOR information as well. So be careful. I will say this, her videos on areas of care (specifically respiratory assessment and peripheral and neuro assessments) are very thorough. I also used Rob's DVDs too. They were helpful in the beginning; but I found a lot of mistakes that could have caused a failure as I learned my ce.

Anyway...to answer your question... YOU CAN DO THIS with no workshop. Know your critical elements like the back of your hand; know your labs well and know your 20-minute check.

Thanks everyone:redbeathe This is one of the only parts I am nervous about. I will look inot Robs DVD as well as Sherri. I think some of her workshops are online. I'm taking my second exam in about 2 weeks, then onto Chronicity.