Turns out I have to take the CNA test

[bustthewave]

So I'm in nursing fundamentals right now, not quite in the nursing program yet. Originally (like... last week) you just had to take this class and pass the clinicals as a pre-req for the nursing school. Now, as of this week, you have to be a certified CNA. I'm alright with this, I'm just REALY nervous!

So... I'm practicing my skills, and I want to do a really good job (bed making is the worst for me... of all things) but I'm wondering... how strict are they?

As I'm practicing the skill "collecting speciman from patient under transmission-based precautions," I just "collected my equipment" before "washing me hands," reversing the two steps... too me this seems like it's not a big deal at all, as the equipment wouldn't be contaminated either way since it would be collected outside the room if full PPE gear were required anyway, BUT! It's out of sync. Would something as seemingly minor as this make me fail the entire test?

Then there is feeding a patient... according to the skills sheet that I have provided from my instructors, washing hands is not the first step here, it's the last. BUT! Providing basic nourishment (water, or food... whatever) washing hands IS the first step... is this a mis-print or am I missing some common sense here, because that doesn't make sense to me.

It's these kinds of things that I don't get and it's making me really nervous!

How should I study/practice for this, and am I being too... crazy... about the specifics?

If it makes a difference as far as testing is conerned, I live in NC.

[bustthewave]

K so I'm looking at these skills (68 total step by step skills in a big thick handout given by my instructors) and these appear to be about 10 times the ammount of skills that are actually in the pool for testing.

It appears there are 24 skills total.

But I can't find an official source to confirm this...

Can anyone direct me to where I can find the exact thing I need to study? 24 skills is SO easy compared to what I've been doing... I'm sure I'll use everything I have practiced though.

[CrazierThanYou]

I'm also from NC and I took the CNA test about a year and half ago. It was to my understanding that any skill could go into the pool but I don't know that for sure.

Don't stress over it. The test is no where near as bad as our instructor made it out to be.

[lillymom]

http://www.asisvcs.com/indhome.asp?CPCAT=0734NURSE I just passed the CNA test in Dec. Go to the link and click on candidate handbook. This is directly from the company that does the testing. The skills you get are computer generated and completely random.

They will select five skills, handwashing is one and there will be one measurement or vital sign that you will have to preform. You can't miss anything on the handwashing but some of the skills you can miss one or two steps depending on how complicated they are. The written test is very easy though.

Some of the nurses are very picky about it but some are not. As for the handwashing you must ALWAYS wash your hands after you finish the task, (you actually just have to say it when testing). There are some youtube videos I think they are from Gaston County that I used to study. Good Luck.