Sleepless in Quebec

Hi.... An American here who just graduated from a direct entry Masters program in Quebec. The next "board" exam for Quebec is in Mid-September.

Due to the fact that Quebec has to keep hammering home how DIFFERENT they are, the test here in Quebec is WAY different from the NCLEX or the CNE (Canadian Nurses Exam). In its effort to be DIFFERENT (did I mention that Quebec emphasizes that they want to be DIFFERENT from the rest of North America?), the Quebec test is a TWO DAY ordeal.

The first day consists of 100 short answer questions (not multiple choice) and the second day is a series of live simulated clinical scenarios (13 to 15 or so) where you walk into a room and there is a patient, a "grader", a set of instructions, and the medical tools you will need. You have 10 minutes to show the grader that you know what to do in this situation that has just been sprung on you.

(During the student initiated and executed Career Week, we had last year's students come to tell us about their first year of "real life", including their experience with the test. One of them said she had imagined that the live simulation part would be the worst experience of her life ... but then she clarified it ... she said it was far more horrible than anything she could have ever imagined.)

Anyway, as I said, I have just graduated from a direct entry Masters program and ... this program could barely be bothered with teaching us about clinical things.

"YOU ARE NOT IN AN UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL ANYMORE," they would regularly tell us in a very condescending tone.

"DON'T EXPECT US TO SERVE IT TO YOU ON A SILVER PLATTER. AT THE MASTER'S LEVEL, IT IS EXPECTED THAT YOU WILL DETERMINE ON YOUR OWN WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND THEN GO AND LEARN IT."

Well ... that might be fine for a normal Master's level program, but it doesn't work for a direct entry program. In order to know what you don't know, you have to have some background in the field. Can you believe that for our ENTIRE third (final) year, we had NO clinical exposure to patients in any setting whatsoever??? NONE! Instead, we read articles from professonal journals and gave presentations and discussed the related clinical implications....

I feel SO BAD for how the B.A. and pre-B.A. trained nurses must feel when a direct entry Master's clown traipses in and gets paid more than they do. Granted, I have been trained in Advanced Practice Nursing and in Nursing Theory and Nursing Research ... but still, as I frequently complained, "The Advanced Practice Nursing training is almost meaningless without the BASIC PRACTICE training."

So... why this rant? The BIG TEST is coming up and I am lucky if I know a Foley from a Swan-Ganz. They are not going to test me on Patricia Benner's theory of Clinical judgment and How expert nurses use intuition.

So here I am preparing, looking at this STACK of basic nursing books. All stacked together, I cannot imagine how many thousands of pages. What am I supposed to do??

I want to work in psychiatry. Right now, I have a job as a "pre-nurse" in a hospital's psych ward. I have a natural gift in that area. (I'm over 50 and have some of the wisdom of age....) But I am SO bowled over by the thought of that exam. I find myself doing all sorts of avoidance behavior regarding studying. (Take this email, for example.)

Well .. what I really want to ask is ... both of Quebec's tests are scenario based .. and, come to find out, I seem to learn best with scenario-based learning. I learn best by example ... which explains why I had to hang on for dear life in the "go learn it on your own" mentality of my program. I NEED CONTEXT!!!!

So... do any of you know of scenario based prep resources - either on the net or in print? To its credit, the Quebec Order of Nurses publishes a very helpful scenario based prep-book ... but ... there are only so many scenarios (with the "right" answers) that they can put in one book. I have also found that Mosby's Canadian prep book has an accompanying scenarios book which will be helpful (again, with the right answers.)

Seems like there must be other such resources available? Yes? Anyone? Someone?