SCRN Experience

[MurseJJ]

Recently I passed the ABNN Stroke Certified Registered Nurse (SCRN) exam. When I was preparing, I searched for info on the exam, how others prepared, etc., but didn't find too much out there. So I'll briefly share my experience in the hope that others will find it helpful.

I have a year's experience on a neuro step-down unit, and studied about a month. The resources I used were:

-Comprehensive Review For Stroke Nursing: this is the review book from AANN. It is very detailed, there are some charts but it's mostly text. Looking back, this book has a lot of info that wasn't on my exam, however the details do help in understanding.

-Fast Facts for Stroke Care Nursing: this is a quick small review book that covers the essentials to know about caring for stroke patients. It covers a lot of what is on the exam, so I went thru it after I did the Comprehensive Review. It includes a lot of tips that are helpful, and helps you make sense of the details from the Comprehensive Review.

-Stroke Chapters in Clinical Practice of Neurological and Neurosurgical Nursing: I looked thru the cerebrovascular anatomy (definitely need to know this), ischemic, ICH, aneurysm, and AVM chapters. Doesn't cover everything on the exam, but good overviews, and has a good chart on stroke syndrome symptoms by vessel, which you need to know.

-Stroke Certification Study Guide for Nurses: Q&A Review: this is by the same author as Fast Facts. It's a 300 question review book, covering each section of the SCRN exam, and the number of questions in each section is based on the percentages from the exam blueprint. Good practice, and great rationales.

-SCRN Practice Test: I also bought the 75 question practice test from AANN. The only downside to these questions is there are no rationales. Also, once you submit, you can go back and review the questions, but you can't do them all over again (you'll only see your answer choice, as well as the correct one if you got it wrong).

If you can get these used or from the library, I'd definitely recommend each resource if you like to study on your own. I personally don't like to sit in review classes, however you may find that useful if that's your style.

As far as the test, it was pretty straightforward. I didn't feel like they were trying to trick you, and I didn't have that uncertain feeling like I had during the NCLEX. If you reviewed with these resources, and reflect on your evidence-based clinical experience, it's honestly pretty easy and straightforward. There were maybe 2-3 questions out of the 170 that I just didn't remember ever covering (like a random medication I never heard of), and the ones I figured I got wrong still sounded vaguely familiar. You're allowed to bring a basic calculator, and the only calculation you might have to do would be related to tPA dosage.

Hope that helps, and good luck

[AdventureOrNothing, BSN, RN]

Thank you for this! I'm testing next week and have been studying mostly just the materialfrom the SCRN review class I attended. The Q&A especially sounds good!

[FeliciaRNCPN]

I tested this past December and passed! I used the AANN book, review book and fast facts!

[sub_lime]

Hello,I'm following this thread and also just asking for help if someone is not using their AANN review book, If I could buy it? the latest one are quite expensive for me (just started my nursing career). ? Thank you so much!

[sunnysheri]

I passed the SCRN exam and completely agree with this post. The SCRN does not seem as common as the CCRN or CNRN and didn't see many posts on people's experiences so I wanted to help guide your studying. I mainly used the AANN book and Stroke Nursing Certification Review by Kathy Morrison. The AANN book was very detailed but very dry, and the Kathy Morrison book helped to supplement this information and broke it down so it was easier to learn (and was more enjoyable for me to read). I found it helpful to take the practice tests in the Kathy Morrison book and then review the answers and rationales. Over 4-5 months I made note cards to quiz myself on questions I got wrong or on information I needed to memorize. I ended up with about 200 before I took my exam! Everybody has a different style of learning but this really helped me. My advice would be to become familiar with lab values and how they relate to stroke patients (what to treat first,  risk factors, etc.) Also know the generic names of medications (brands are not listed on the test), cranial nerves, stoke location by symptom, what each type of scan is looking for, and what each scale is for. Also familiarize yourself with ICP and treatments. Considering the amount of studying I did the test was harder than I expected but not terrible. I just focused on one question at a time and bookmarked the questions I was unsure of. Then I went back to them when I was finished answering the things I did know. Good luck!

Also a word of advice: Check with your facility to see if they can supply a book. Our supervisor bought the AANN book for our unit. I also spoke with the librarian in our hospital medical library and she purchased the Kathy Morrison e-book for me. Books are expensive and I didn't need to spend a dime (except on my test registration fee which is reimbursed by my facility).