state exam question...

pagandeva2000, LPN · May 7, 2007

i live in nc. i will soon be taking the state exam. i'm wanting to know
1. how many questions are you allowed to miss ?
2. if you miss as little as 1 step in the skills will they fail you?
3. will skills be performed in front of everyone there for the exam?

i don't remember how many questions can be missed, but if you study and apply yourself, you shouldn't have any problems. i saw that they have study guide for the state exam similar to those for lpn and rn. read the book thoroughly. during my skill exam, i did miss a whole procedure. the nurse placed a mannequin on the bed and raised the head of the bed as well as the feet, then removed the pillow and asked me to raise the person higher in the bed. i just placed one hand behind the neck and another around the torso without moving the head or feet of the bed and moved the person up. the nurse told me that i did it totally wrong, and i was ready to collapse!! that was not one of the skills that i remembered. again, i didn't study from a state book exam, but my textbook, so, i suspect that i overlooked it. but, she told me that i did it so gently, and the fact that i explained to the mannequin what i was doing and asked it to help me that, she sincerely felt that i would manage the skill at a later date. i also remember the nurse saying that during the bedbath, that, i didn't ask the patient what they can do for themselves. for me, it was only the evaluator present.

my school told us that we can come with a partner. i didn't, so, they did not ask me to do any skill where i needed a second person (no vital signs, surprizingly). they did say that if another test taker was there and the request was to use a live person and no person was available, that this could happen. since i had two hours to wait to take the written exam, i do remember volunteering to help a person, so, that guy (poor thing, he was so nervous) to do my blood pressure and take my pulse (both are always relatively low). he passed, too, though. once, i escorted my friend to take her state exam and she had to brush my teeth. that was a hoot, believe me.

make sure that you practice your vital signs. if you have a hard time doing blood pressure (as most do in the beginning), practice, practice, practice!! you can obtain a blood pressure kit from any nursing uniform store. and practice pulse and respirations as well. you don't know what skill they will ask, but, try and practice whatever you can. one thing i walked away with in my experience is that i showed keen interest and compassion in the patient. made sure that i knocked on the door (that is a biggie), introduced myself and told them what i planned to do. make sure that before you do a procedure with a bedridden patient, or moving them that the bed and wheelchair is locked. sitting them up, make sure that they are in dangling position before moving them again. it seemed to me that this was part of what they were looking for (don't ignore the skills, though), but safety is a big issue. if you take a vital sign and it is above the parameters, make sure that you tell the evaluator that you are going to tell the nurse, immediately.

the main reason why i say to practice your vital signs is because the person that i escorted didn't do it and she failed twice...never to become a cna. she was told to take my vitals and i even made sure that i breathed at 18 breaths per minute. she was told to do my vitals while the nurse had the double stethoscope and listened as well. she also told my friend to write the answers on the board. i remembered that she looked at the board, and the expression of her face was pure shock. right afterwards, she told her to brush my teeth and then, told me to leave. i happened to look at the board and saw the vitals (and i remember those numbers to this day) pulse was 25, respirations was 56. my face fell and i knew she failed. so, take it for what it is worth, study and practice them off of your family and friends.

these are your boards. passing will increase your livelihood, good luck! sorry i ranted for so long.

Heidi W · May 8, 2007

In TN you get a studybook thing with all the skills you need to know. There are bolded steps on each skill that if you miss you fail. and if you miss 20% of any skill you fail. but that's just TN. but when I took my skills test the the LPN was so nice that I got over my nerves quickly. and then when I was about to forget she would like tilt her head or something. Hopefully you'll get someone like that. Good Luck