BSBSN

Location: North Central Texas Experience: 2.8 years; BSN, CCRN, CNRN Specialty: ICU, interventional radiology Facility: Urban teaching hospital Base Pay: $33 Differentials: Evening, night & weekend = $3, $4 and $5.50/hr, respectively. OT: Call pay $3/hr, call back pay @ 1.5x hourly; I work 3 12-hr shifts, often p/u extra shifts for OT as well. Great benefits. Health insurance is free for employee, we get sick time and 8 holidays per year (banked if you work that day) in addition to vacation hours. Education pay is available to attend continuing ed courses.

I told myself if I passed the CNRN exam I would create a post that detailed what I reviewed in preparation since it was so hard for me to find any recent info on the topic while I was trying to prepare. I used several resources and threw a lot of money at it, not having any idea how to focus my prep. That said, I can share what I studied but it's not necessarily a recommendation because, though I passed, I still felt I was failing the test the entire time. So, I didn't feel prepared, but apparently I was. My background is about 2 years in Neuro ICU at a Level I Trauma Center and 1.5 years in neurointerventional radiology. That experience gave me a good foundation of knowledge in brain anatomy, trauma, post-surgical, stroke and cerebrovascular anatomy/injury. Resources I used for other areas: AANN Neuroscience Nursing Certification Review Focused CE Series: this was interesting but I don't feel it helped me at all in preparation for the test. The extremely high cost of the course is not justifiable if you want it solely as test prep. If you only had the minimum one year experience in nursing and planned to take the test, then maybe it would be helpful in exposing you to other areas of neuro nursing beyond your current scope. AANN CNRN Self-Assessment Examination: This test is only 70 questions and I passed with a lower score than I got on the actual test. I guess this is helpful if you just want some practice questions, but again, the cost is very high for what you get in return. CNRN Exam Secrets Study Guide by Mometrix: This is more of a pamphlet, the individual topic areas are so general as to feel almost useless, but it does contain a breadth of topics that might help you understand where you need further study. The practice test is crazy hard, but if like me you really like practice questions to get you critically thinking, it still helps. What I thought helped the most (and was the cheapest!) The Clinical Practice of Neurological and Neuroscience Nursing, ie The Hickey Book: I used the test outline and looked up each area in this book. For me that meant just some areas like chronic neurological, immune/infection, and diseases. Made notes on things like treatment/meds, plan of care. AANN Clinical Practice Guidelines: These are free for members! It's a lot to slog through, but it's bullet points and pretty straightforward. Again, note treatment/meds, nursing actions. Dr. Najeeb Lectures on YouTube: I really liked the Circle of Willis lecture and I think his lectures are great for visual learners. That sums it all up. I don't think there's one best resource, but using the test outline to guide your study into the areas you are lacking is my best advice. I'll also note that I am a good test taker, so I had that on my side as well. [h=2][/h]

Congrats muinatay! I know the excitement...See you in May!

Hi TX2015. I'm pretty sure any 4-year public university will require you take the Texas history and government, I believe it's a core requirement regardless. I think you can only get around it if you pursued an ADN instead or went to a private university (but they will probably require some other course, like religion).

I will be accepting. I look forward to meeting everyone in a couple months!

It's great that you're considering what order to take the pre-reqs in. I wish I had done some more research before I started mine. As the previous commenter said, it depends on the school. Not sure if you're planning on a BSN or ADN, but in my experience in applying for a BSN program, schools didn't require that you complete all the pre-reqs before applying, just before starting the program. There were some conditions that needed to be met by application though, i.e. 8 hours of the required sciences complete or some required a specific science class be completed before applying. It's helpful to consider that so you can plan the timing of your application. I am still finishing pre-reqs this semester but I applied last fall and did get accepted to a summer start program this year.

Just got my acceptance email! I've been stalking this thread while waiting to hear back, to see if anyone else had heard anything more so I thought I should post that I heard. I am so happy it only took a couple weeks since even that was difficult to wait.

I applied to the Bacc2 program, so it may be different, but I think the section on NursingCAS where you copy and paste the statement limits it to 700 words. I also noticed an option to attach a document, so maybe that's how you can write more? The information about volunteer hours is something to include in your personal statement, there's so section to enter it elsewhere. Good luck!

Congratulations on the acceptances! I just had my interview yesterday, and as previous commenters said, it was very relaxed. I hope I hear back as quickly as you all did.

Thanks for the update and info about your interview. Sounds like it went really well. It's nice to hear about what's happening with other applicants as we all wait anxiously!

Thanks for all the great information. Waiting optimistically over here as well! Good luck!

That's exciting, congrats on the interviews! When did you turn in your application? Just curious about the timeline.