ONE-TWO--

Got accepted to 2 schools and currently in second semester at ASU. Passed 1st semester with a 4.0 and loving every second of it. Still can't believe I'm in this position. I'm so blessed!

Had a friend that interviewed with them in September and was offered a spot the same day but turned it down.

Hey guys becoming a CRNA is such a huge goal of mine I wanted to ask you guys what my chances look like. Nursing GPA: 3.36 Previous undergrad degree 2.85 I never made a C in nursing school which I was very proud of. I have my CCRN, am ACLS, PALS, and BLS certified. I am also studying to get my CSC. Recently took my GRE and made a 311. (Verbal 155 and Quantitative 156). I realize that my previous undergrad GPA is horrible but am willing to discuss further with admissions committee and point out that my last 60 hours in nursing school is significantly better. What do talk think of my chances?

I actually got them from a friend. It was a two day review course. Don't know where they were from.

Some of the questions were actually very close to the actual questions in the test. I almost had some questions that were very close to being word for word. That being said, some of them were completely different. The best advice I can give when using the PASS CCRN questions is to thoroughly read the rationales for the right and wrong questions. If you can understand the concepts that are being tested it won't matter how they ask the question.

What I meant is that you have to do some in depth critical thinking. Don't get me wrong, there were some very simple concept questions, but they were few and far between. I wish I knew GI and pulmonary a little better. There is a lot of stuff to deal with not just interpreting ABGs but knowing what should be changed with the vent settings provided. I surprisingly did pretty bad on psychosocial. What the Gasparis DVDs skip out on is what I did bad. I wouldn't take the DVDs as end-all, know-all. There is a lot of information that is on the test. Take advantage of your bookmarks. What seemed like crazy hard questions seemed perfectly fine with a second go round and a fresh set of eyes so to speak. Just take your time. Take deep breaths and just chug along. If there is a certain question that you have no idea on, just move on the next one and focus on the new one. Don't fret that you didn't know the previous question or you'll drive yourself crazy.

When you do practice questions make sure you are able to understand the rationale why certain answers are right and others are wrong. That helped me a ton.

I watched the Laura Gasparis DVDs, PASS CCRN online questions, and a review book called Critical Care Nursing Certification by Ahrens, Prentice, and Kleinpell. I thought about getting the AACN review material but didn't. I initially watched the Laura Gasparis DVDs while taking VERY thorough notes (at times pausing or rewinding multiple times to jot down notes that I thought would be important). I then watched it again a second time but without taking notes just listening to the material and letting it set in. I also did a TON of the PASS CCRN online questions. I would do a practice test, see what sections I did poorly on and then read the material and spend some time focusing on that certain section. I initially did pretty poor on the most important sections(Cardiac, Pulmonary, and Neuro). But I studied those like crazy. Those sections make up around half the test so it's important to know that stuff.

Hey guys I just passed my CCRN! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw that I passed. It was pretty hard and I definitely had to work for it during the test. Let me know if you guys have any questions and I'll try to go over what I did and what was on the test.

Hey guys, I am a newer RN with about 9 months of experience in the ICU. Most schools require that you have 1 year experience in the ICU by program start date, so by the time that I apply and get in a program that wouldn't be a problem. I just am a little nervous about what type of recommendation letter I would get with only having less than one year of experience in the ICU. I know most schools require a supervisor recommendation letter, I'm just nervous about asking my supervisor for a recommendation letter and how she would react. I work very hard when I'm at work. I've got my BLS, ACLS, PALS certifications, I'm gonna take my GRE by October, and I'm gonna try to have my CCRN by about December. What has been response of your supervisors in the ICU when you asked for a recommendation letter, for those of you who have gone in with one year of experience?

I know that we have to have 1750 hours in order to take CCRN exam. My question is, do the orientation hours that we go through count towards the 1750 hours? We go through a 3 month orientation process and we are technically providing bedside care in a critical care environment. A lot of new grads and I are wanting to take the CCRN exam as soon as possible and want to know if those hours count or not. It would really make a difference between having an additional 600 hours that would count toward our total. Thanks for y'all's responses.

One if the assessments we do every 4 hours involves our IV site assessments. I'll look at the site, make sure it's not leaking/infiltrated and make sure I get proper blood return and that it flushes properly without any problems. My question is that when I have a patient with a drip like epi, Neo, etc I usually will not flush those lines because I'm afraid that will give the pt a bolus of each respective drug. Am I ok just leaving the IV site connected and assessing for infiltration/phlebitis/leaking and not flushing? My rational is that if there was a problem there then either the pump would go off or I would notice some problem at the IV site.

Yes you are correct about contact versus droplet. A lot of the questions were geared toward that stuff but were phrased like "A nurse is leading a teaching class about infection control. Which of those following should the nurse include?" Some were multiple choice. Others were SATA. I really can't put my finger on why I didn't feel prepared. I did the HURST review in person and signed up for a second class. That class was full so I ended up being offered the online review and I watched all of those videos. The bad thing that happened to me was that the test seemed to have pretty much all the stuff I didn't think would be on it. I thought,"surely they will have stuff about Addison's disease, graves, cushings" just an example of course. I only had one question out of 180 about any of those diseases. A lot of it was from stuff that was hardly mentioned or not at all. Granted I didn't go over everything twice. Some stuff like maternity complications I didn't go over at all. But sure enough the NCLEX knew somehow what I didn't study and attacked me at my weak points. That's not to say all hope is lost. My buddy did the exact same stuff and we even watched almost all the online stuff together. He took the test at the same time and got cut off at 80 questions and didn't think the test was bad at all.

I just took the NCLEX yesterday and I studied HURST as well. When mine didn't cut off at 75 I thought, "no big deal...it might cut off around 80" (I had classmates that had that happen to them). Boy I was wrong, after 180 questions I was losing my mind. I don't know what it was but a majority of the stuff that was on my test was stuff I had hardly seen or never seen at all. Stuff that was only probably covered for like 2-3 minutes in the entirety of my nursing school (ex. Tetralogy of fallot (spelling?)). I had so many priority questions and questions over infection control. Make sure you look over the different type of precautions for different type of illnesses because I literally had around 20-30 of those questions. I felt like I did horrible and walked out of that test about to throw up. I literally felt like I guessed on 75% of that test. I checked in the car and got the good pop up so hopefully that means I passed. Word of advice: just take it easy and forget if you did bad on the previous question. Also, don't look around and admire your other classmates that are taking the test with you. Just keep your eyes focused on that computer screen. The moment you look around and see that all the people from your class are gone you will freak out. (Trust me, I did).