PBDS, anyone?

You are required to pass PBDS in order to officially get out of orientation where I work. PBDS is one of those fill-in-the-blank and essay-type tests that takes the whole day to do. You watch a very brief video (and have only one chance to watch it), then are required to write what you think the problem is, interventions you would do, what you would report to the doctor, and what you think the doctor would order and why. The tests are then sent off and hand-graded by some group in Chicago. They DO take into account how many years of nursing experience you have, so the less experience you have, the less detailed they expect your answers to be.

When I was in residency, they made us do practice PBDS every time we were in class. We'd watch five scenarios, write our answers down, and then the educator would go over the answers. We were scheduled to take the PBDS after a month or two of working on the floor with our preceptor so we'd have more exposure to situations and critical thinking. Where I am, they said that new grads often had to take the PBDS more than one time to pass, but I got it on my first try. :) Good luck!

that sounds ridiculous to expect that from a new graduate. You simply do not have the clinical judgement/experience yet to gauge situations appropriately.

Exactly what stripedsock said. I didn't pass it the first time, and was required to rewatch some of the scenarios and talk out the diagnosis, interventions, etc with one of our team leaders. I found it frustrating because they wanted every little intervention, even if it was totally obvious, such as 'hold the medication'. We all knew that we would hold it, but you got points taken off if you didn't actually write it out.

No one in our orientation group liked it, for it really was a big hit to our confidence level since most of us failed.