jess1ca

Best of luck to everyone who is writing it tomorrow!

You'll be fine. They won't care that you've never had a real job before - on my resume, I didn't even have work experience down - all I had was my nursing clinical experience like where I did my psychiatric rotation, pediatrics rotation, etc. Sure, an individual can put down that he/she has worked at Starbucks for the past 15 years, but unless it's in the field of nursing or something with patient care, I wouldn't put it down on my resume. It might even be a few weeks until you get a job interview with a manager! You have plenty of time to relax and prepare. My interview lasted about 45 minutes. There'll definitely be the general questions like why you're in nursing, why you want to work at that particular unit, how do you cope with the stress of nursing, etc. I guess it'll depend on the unit, but there might be "situation" questions like what do you do if your patient suddenly...etc, etc, etc. At the very end, when they ask you if you have any questions for them, make sure you have at least five questions written out (or memorized) to ask. Here's a good post with some great questions. Best of luck!

Best of luck to you all! Here's what I did when I had to write it in June.

Hear hear! I wrote the CRNE in June - when they changed it all to multiple choice and ditched the short answers - and I thought it was a very, very fair exam. I don't see a reason to change it to more than three attempts and I don't see it happening for a long, long, long, long time. I think instead of emailing the CNA and wasting your time, you could be better off studying or memorizing a couple of lab values.

Just wanted to pop in here and say best of luck to everyone who's writing on the 6th! You can do it! Remember: you can't study/remember everything - no one can. Do your best, manage your time well and breathe! :anpom:

Hi all. I'm currently an unemployed graduate nurse in Alberta - graduated from my nursing program in April - I took/passed the June 2010 CRNE. I have a temporary grad nurse permit (that's gathering dust) which expires in October. Anyways, it (the paper we got with our CRNE results) says that the RN practice permit is effective October 1, 2010 - September 30, 2011 and that 2011 initial RN registration can be completed online - contact CARNA. I don't have a job at the moment, so can I still do the initial RN registration? Can I contact CARNA now or do I need to get a job first? Also, it says something about employer reference - "Please note that if you don't complete initial registration within six months of completing your nursing program, you'll be required to provide an employer reference regarding your nursing practice." I don't have a job, so what is this employer reference? Is it going to kick me in the behind when the six months (October) rolls to my front steps and I'm still unemployed? Thanks for your help! I'm freaking out at the moment!

My sympathies to those people who didn't pass this time around. Here's a quick link to my advice that was posted on page 15 of this thread. Also, it was Amazon.ca where I bought all those textbooks, not Amazon.com. Whoops. I think all the CRNE textbooks prepared me well because I did tons of practice questions. Did I get them all right? Nope. I think during one chapter in the Lippincott's CRNE Prep Guide I got 60% or so and I was wondering what I was doing wrong! I think the Mosby's Comprehensive Review for the Canadian RN Exam was awesome. It summarized everything into one handy book with chapters like "Pharmacology and Nursing Practice", "Pediatric Nursing", "Maternal-Newborn Nursing", etc. I didn't have to run around and flip through other textbooks, everything was right there. Of course, a lot of my friends just bought the CRNE prep guide 5th edition and they did fine. If you feel that your notes/textbooks are fantastic and you don't want to spend all that money on CRNE textbooks, it's up to you. For myself, those practice questions were very handy and it definitely prepared my mind. Remember, it's not possible to study/memorize every diagnosis or every medication. Stay calm, do your best and take breaks when studying.

Hey all! I just got my CRNE result in the mail - I'm in Calgary - and I passed! I'm so, so exciied! Holy smokes, slicing open that with a mail opener made my heart rate jump up, haha. This was my first time writing it and all that studying totally paid off! For those writing in the future, here's what I did. I made a list of things I had to study a few months before the CRNE. For example, I spent 11 days on community, 15 days on maternity, 14 days on pediatrics, etc. Just reviewing my university notes and everything. The last three weeks or so, I devoted that time to studying adult health because medical/surgical health is huge. I bought all the CRNE textbooks on Amazon.com (they were worth a lot of $$$ so I don't know if it was a good idea or not, haha). After those 3 weeks of studying adult health, I had about 10 days or so where I would go over all the CRNE textbooks. The practice exams, the review they had, etc. I did the practice exam in the CRNE prep guide 5th edition two days before the CRNE to see how I would do. The day before the exam, I don't really remember what I did, haha. (If anyone has any questions about which CRNE textbooks are worth it, just ask! The CRNE prep guide 5th edition is a MUST.) For the CRNE exam, I tried my best to finish at least 60 questions an hour so I would have time to review my answers. I managed my time well and I "finished" the exam with ~55 minutes to spare. I spent that time reviewing my answers and going back to the answers I had left blank. I know a lot of people don't prepare for the CRNE like I did, but it worked and hey, I'm super happy and it's time to celebrate! Yay!

Awesome! Nothing here in Alberta yet! :zzzzz

I'm not sure what I thought about yesterday's exam. I'm kicking myself for some of the questions I know I got wrong. ARGGHHH.

I picked up the new CRNE prep guide today. It's definitely thinner than the 4th edition and from the looks of it, it's a new prep guide and the questions are new (but don't quote me on it, I've only looked at a few of the questions and they look brand new). There are NO short answer questions with this new prep guide, maybe that's why it's thinner than the previous edition, haha.

Did you guys feel like there were a lot of numbers involved with the exam, like lab values? Our class had a chat about the CRNE and our instructor said, "They won't ask you about lab values because in a clinical setting, the normal ranges will be on the computer, but know what happens if a lab value is way below or way above normal."

I'm writing it in June and I heard that my university bookstore just got the 5th edition of the CNA prep guide. I'll buy it on Monday and see what it says about the exam.

I just wanted to say good luck to everyone who's writing it next week! I write mine in June, but I have a lot of classmates who graduated four months early and are writing it next week. Best of luck, everyone! Stay positive.