kcardinalrn

How many hours you have worked. For ANCC you had to have a minimum 2000 of practice hours before taking the exam.

Why are you getting a full patient load on your fourth day? How many patients? At my facility, you start with two patients and work your way up to 5-7 depending on the shift you work. Is your preceptor helping you at all? You really need to speak up for yourself and voice your concerns. That is the only way you will get support from your manager, trainer, or preceptor. I'm sorry you had such a bad day Katie

I don't know which is the best, but I took the ANCC med surg certification exam in march. It was pretty much like taking your RN boards again! I do remember that the instructor at the study classes recommended the ANCC, and that's why I chose it. Let me know if you have any other questions!

You too! On my unit there was a binder with information from a previous study session that was held. It had an outline of different areas to study and about 10 CDs that had the study session recorded on them. I listened to the CDs while using the outline kind of like being at a lecture! I focused a lot on acid base balances and things that I thought I was not as strong with. I do agree with you though, it is like going over a&p and nursing school all over again! Like I said, I'm glad it is over, but I am going to be sure to keep up with my continuing ed so I stay current!!

There were a lot of research an evidence based practice questions on my test. There were also a lot on specific meds and their side effects! Which really threw me as I didn't know any of them and couldn't figure them out from the suffixes or whatever! I'm just glad it's over!

You will be surprised how much you will learn during your orientation. At my facility, there is a minimum of 14 weeks of orientation for a new grad. During that time, you should be asking questions about what you are seeing, especially things you are not familiar with. Things like that are going to come up throughout your entire career. Look the surgeries up during down time (yeah right) or on your own time. You will want to know this information, and you can be a resource for those who have questions in the future. I have worked on an extremely busy surgical unit for five years and I have seen so much, but there is always something coming in that I haven't seen. Basically what I am saying is, ASK QUESTIONS!!! Try to stick it out through the hard times, they will get better and we really need med-surg nurses!

I took the ANCC med surg certification exam late march. I was a total wreck! I took the study class in September and waited until almost the last minute to finally take it! Fortunately, I work well under pressure and I crammed all week and passed! I felt like I was taking my boards again! How did you do? What did you think about the test?

Can you send it to me also? Work on a very busy surgical unit, that would be very useful I'm sure! [email protected]