AdiRN

thanks for posting, please consider hanging out with us on the thread.... i would love to hear how having your ccrn feels for you and what kind of reception you are getting at work. do you get a bonus? are there very many other ccrn certified nurses at your workplace? isn't it remarkable how closely those dennison questions correlate with the actual ccrn? did you notice many verbatim questions btw the both? i had a few. thanks for joining our thread!!!! no bonus for me at my job and i have never seen it on anyone's id, but some people have scrubs or pins that they wear with ccrn on them. i am in an emergency department and critical care/icu resource pool at work (i.e. i work in all of the icus, irad, endoscopy, pacu, and ed) so i don't really have a home base and don't know how many of the nurses throughout the hospital have their ccrn certification. the day after i took my exam i was working in the cicu and there were several patients who had a vad; i got to see them in a different light after having vad questions on the actual exam and practice exams. it was pretty cool. also, i spoke with some nurses who did not take the ccrn yet and encouraged them to sit for the exam (they had been thinking about it, but didn't know how to study or think they were ready). i also referred them to this thread. though i don't get recognition at work, i am glad i did it. in the very near future, i will most likely begin travel nursing and hope it helps with getting a good position. at the very least, i feel much smarter and confident in my knowledge since studying for and passing the ccrn. as for the questions... i only saw many that were similar to dennison, but really none that were verbatim. there were many more acid/base abg questions on my actual exam than the practice exams. some of the questions could have come from the explanations on the dennison cd, and i am glad that i read many of the explanations to the questions. thanks again for your support, both before and after!

thanks for posting, please consider hanging out with us on the thread.... i would love to hear how having your ccrn feels for you and what kind of reception you are getting at work. do you get a bonus? are there very many other ccrn certified nurses at your workplace? isn't it remarkable how closely those dennison questions correlate with the actual ccrn? did you notice many verbatim questions btw the both? i had a few. thanks for joining our thread!!!! no bonus for me at my job and i have never seen it on anyone's id, but some people have scrubs or pins that they wear with ccrn on them. i am in an emergency department and critical care/icu resource pool at work (i.e. i work in all of the icus, irad, endoscopy, pacu, and ed) so i don't really have a home base and don't know how many of the nurses throughout the hospital have their ccrn certification. the day after i took my exam i was working in the cicu and there were several patients who had a vad; i got to see them in a different light after having vad questions on the actual exam and practice exams. it was pretty cool. also, i spoke with some nurses who did not take the ccrn yet and encouraged them to sit for the exam (they had been thinking about it, but didn't know how to study or think they were ready). i also referred them to this thread. though i don't get recognition at work, i am glad i did it. in the very near future, i will most likely begin travel nursing and hope it helps with getting a good position. at the very least, i feel much smarter and confident in my knowledge since studying for and passing the ccrn. as for the questions... i only saw many that were similar to dennison, but really none that were verbatim. there were many more acid/base abg questions on my actual exam than the practice exams. some of the questions could have come from the explanations on the dennison cd, and i am glad that i read many of the explanations to the questions. thanks again for your support, both before and after!

Hi all, I have been reading this thread on and off for the past few weeks and I promised myself that I would post after I took my CCRN exam (I don’t normally post on boards, so I was a little apprehensive…). I wanted to say thank you for being so candid in your comments and supportive or each other. All of your comments have been spot on about ways to study. I too used Pass CCRN by Dennison, as well as some hints from Critical Care Nursing Certification by Ahrens. Plus I had some VERY old Dr. Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio VHS tapes that I would watch at random times over the past few months. I had the Pass CCRN book for only a few weeks (purchased after a recommendation here) and for the past week I have done nothing but crazy amounts of practice tests and practice questions. My main focus was on the “big guns,” the cardiac, pulmonary, and multisystem sections. I used the website www.pacep.org to review Pulmonary Artery and Swan-Ganz. I also recertified in ACLS yesterday, which helped a bit with studying and confidence. The main thing I would recommend is doing the practice questions and several practice exams before taking the actual test. Today I found that I got approximately the same score on the real test as I was getting on my final few exams, and I passed!

Hi all, I have been reading this thread on and off for the past few weeks and I promised myself that I would post after I took my CCRN exam (I don’t normally post on boards, so I was a little apprehensive…). I wanted to say thank you for being so candid in your comments and supportive or each other. All of your comments have been spot on about ways to study. I too used Pass CCRN by Dennison, as well as some hints from Critical Care Nursing Certification by Ahrens. Plus I had some VERY old Dr. Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio VHS tapes that I would watch at random times over the past few months. I had the Pass CCRN book for only a few weeks (purchased after a recommendation here) and for the past week I have done nothing but crazy amounts of practice tests and practice questions. My main focus was on the “big guns,” the cardiac, pulmonary, and multisystem sections. I used the website www.pacep.org to review Pulmonary Artery and Swan-Ganz. I also recertified in ACLS yesterday, which helped a bit with studying and confidence. The main thing I would recommend is doing the practice questions and several practice exams before taking the actual test. Today I found that I got approximately the same score on the real test as I was getting on my final few exams, and I passed!

I have heard that there is crime in the subway stations near Temple and Einstein, but haven't heard any specifics before the stabbing of the elderly person. Does anyone know of the crime situation around the Temple University Hospital campus, including public transportation safety? Also, I am interested in working in a big university or university affiliated hospital; eventually I would like to work in an intensive or critical care unit at one of these hospitals but don't know what the policies of hiring into these units are. I have been told I might have to work my way in from a step-down unit, does this sound accurate?

Hi, I am reentering nursing in the Philadelphia area and was wondering about comparisons for some of the hospitals. I have been looking into Pennsylvania Hospital, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Hospital, and Temple University Hospital; are there any others that I should look into? I am only looking at hospitals with good public transportation access as I don't have a car and I live in center city. What are the "personalities" of the various hospitals? Which departments are better to work in at each hospital? Any other advice for nursing in Philadelphia would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.