Taking CRNE Wednesday!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 5, 2007

I'm not entirely positive about this but from the comments I've heard from coworkers who took it recently and from the quick look I had at a study guide, I'm going to guess NOT. The majority of questions I read in the study guide (lent to me for a few minutes by a coworker trained in the UK who is writing on Wednesday too) revolved around what you would focus on when a "client" comes into your community health centre and has a chronic problem. Could just be that the section of the book I looked at was concentrating on that angle, or maybe not. Anyway, my coworker was told at the class she was sent to by our employer that 2/3 of foreign trained nurses (all lumped together, nothing specifically related to fluency in English or anything) failed the first time and that nurses who had ten years or more experience also tended not to do well, because the exam wants textbook answers, not real-world ones. Having said that, I wish you the best of luck... I'd probably fail!

Caroline0074 · Feb 5, 2007

wow, thats not too encouraging. Guess I'll do my best and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 5, 2007

How good are you at "playing the game"? The answers are going to be very theoretical and in-a-perfect-world. I think you'll be fine as long as you remember how textbooks word things. There are some short answer questions on the exam too, and you can often wring a few more points out of those! If you passed the NCLEX on the first try you'll be okay. Don't worry.

Caroline0074 · Feb 5, 2007

I think all nursing exams are like that. But if I have to take it again, I will take it again. By the way, where do you practice? I am a NICU nurse too!!! I worked at Texas Children's Hospital before moving to Canada. If I have my way, I would like to work at CHEO In Ottawa.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 5, 2007

By the way, where do you practice? I am a NICU nurse too!!! I worked at Texas Children's Hospital before moving to Canada. If I have my way, I would like to work at CHEO In Ottawa.

I'm working in the PICU at the Stollery Children's Hospital/University of Alberta in Edmonton. I haven't worked neonatal in a long time, except for our little cardiacs, (and floating!!!) of course. CHEO would be a good place to work. My oldest daughter was born in Ottawa, so there's a little fondness in my heart for our Capital.

Caroline0074 · Feb 5, 2007

Just curious, how do you view your relationship between nurses and doctors in your unit? Do they value nurse input?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 5, 2007

There are times when nursing input is valued and times when it's not. Basically, if I disagree with something, then my opinion isn't worth much... Funny that. In our unit, the physician progress notes written by the peds residents are verbatim the nurse's report in rounds. If I'm talking too fast during report, they'll ask me to slow down or repeat myself so they don't miss anything. I rarely see any of them ever put hands on a patient except to put in lines. Even our attendings only do a sketchy exam. And I have serious concerns about that practice, because we have a lot of very junior nurses who haven't been around long enough to recognize the subtle changes that signal impending disaster. I often wonder how many "events" result from an over-reliance on nursing assessments. All that aside, we have a couple of attendings who are very interested in what the nurse has to say, and they listen, they discuss and they act. Then we have a couple... well really maybe only one... who's not going to hear anything a nurse says, because it comes from a nurse, and what do we know? I think they've come to realize though that if I call them to a bedside, there's really a problem and they'd better get their butts over there!

bluedanube · Feb 8, 2007

I wrote my exam yesterday and I was very tired and dizzy by the end of the day. We had 121 MC and 32 short answer questions AM and the same for PM..

Lots of questions from Health Promotion, patient teaching, abuse.

Not much lab values at all! Yes the questions are very textbook like and many times I had to reread the questions because I did not get the core of it.Try to sit close to the window where there is lots of natural light(remember it is a long day) and avoid being too close to the front because when people are coming out with there papers to hand in at the end of sessions it can be very disturbing. I had to ask for another table because of that.

I had no clue about passing or failing the exam and if I fail it I do not even know how to get better after all that studying. At the moment I am relieved that it is over and the rest will come in 12-15 weeks.

abcotta · Feb 8, 2007

exactly what you said bluedanube!!! I thought I was alone to feel like this! I felt blue after the test and have no idea if I pass or fail. :sniff:

Caroline0074 · Feb 9, 2007

So I felt exactly like I felt after walking out from taking the NCLEX three years ago. I FAILED. But I passed the NCLEX the first time and if God wills it I will pass this one as well.

If I don't well the worst that will happen is that I will have to take it again.

And if I still don't pass it then, I will probably work in the U.S. Canada would have lost yet another potential nurse to the U.S. cause their alittle confused about what material to test nurses on. I think I got all the technical nursing questions correct cause in my opinion the NCLEX was MUCH harder when it came to those types of questions but the questions related to community health nursing, and there was A LOT of those, I felt first, what does this have to do with anything, and then I thought, what exactly are you asking for? I guess I was at a disadvantage when it came to this cause I would guess (correct me if I am wrong) that nursing school in Canada probably teach you, to some degree anyway, towards the CRNE and probably do focus more on community health. I'll be the first to tell you that Nursing school in the U.S. do teach you towards the NCLEX. Nursing school was very much theory based nursing knowledge as it relates to making quick and accurate decisions as to NOT kill a patient.

Don't get me wrong, I would not have minded studying more on community health had there been more or less of a comprehensive study guide or preparatory guide that would elude to the types of community health knowledge that would be important to review such as Mosby's or Saunders, or Kaplan among other guides available to ANYONE taking the NCLEX in the U.S. that actually give you a specific rational for the importance of outcomes related to the question.

I know I probably have no right to say any of this cause I am not even from here and if I don't like the way Canada does things I should just bug off but I think I have to speak for nurses everywhere, and that includes Canada, that the CRNE DOES NOT test nursing knowledge. The only reason why the test was difficult was because you did not have much to prepare you for what would be tested, the length of the test (9 hours, I thought my head would explode by the time I got out of there), and the content tested was an insult to anyone that was not a community health nurse or had a major interest in becoming a community health nurse. Seriously, does knowing the characteristics of a focus group have anything to do with saving a life? If it does and I am totally off the mark here please someone explain it to me.

Oh by the way, I didn't only vent about this here I also wrote a very nasty evaluation after the test as well. So this is my contribution to all you would be nurses that have to take this exam. Hopefully it will wake someone up, although I have to say I don't have much faith in government, the U.S. and Canada alike. Any governement for that matter. But I can saythis at least: I DID MY PART.

OK I AM OFF MY SOAPBOX NOW.

Thanks for letting me vent...

haggs · Feb 9, 2007

I wrote the CRNE exam on wednesday in Edmonton. I studied very hard but found the questions very subjective and that all the studying I did was not applicable - except cardiac. I am not sure how I did! Did anyone else write this exam?