in my state, we are given 5 skills and we have to pass all 5 skills in 25 minutes in order to pass the exam.
okay, so here is my story:
about eight of us were waiting in a classroom for an hour while two others completed their test. i was up next. someone told me "you're not nervous yet, but when she (the examiner) calls your name, that's when your heart will start beating fast..."
and it did!!!!!
for my test, i got washes hands (like everybody does), measures and records blood pressure, provides mouth care, feeds client who cannot feed self, and puts one knee-high elastic stocking on client.
when i saw "blood pressure", that is when i started shaking. all the different tests were in a notebook so i felt like just turning the page and taking a different test!
right when the time started i just started washing my hands, and halfway through i remembered i had to introduce myself to the client first. so i had to finish doing that and then wash my hands, which was about 2-3 minutes off my time - it should have only been 1 (and maybe 1 min 30 seconds)
i go to get the blood pressure cuff and i knock the supplies to provide mouth care on the floor, and i spend about a minute picking them off the floor. then, i had to take the person's blood pressure 3 times because when i pumped it up the first time to 160, i heard his beat at 150. the second time i forgot what his blood pressure was, so i took it again!.
this whole process took atleast 13 minutes - so by the time i went to clean their teeth i only had 7 minutes left. it did not seem like that long!
by the time i finished cleaning their teeth and getting ready for the next skill, time ran out.
i was so embarrassed because i knew the skills by heart and i was just nervous. there were people in the classroom waiting who hadn't even seen the handbook or said they just learned the skills yesterday. i was studying the skills two weeks before that plus my clinical exp and my class exp.
anyway...advice i could give people on taking the skill test is just to be cautious of your time and just do the skills that are in your handbook and not any extra skills. i think now that i could have introduced myself to the client after i finished washing my hands because that skill wasn't in bold, and i should have left the supplies for cleaning the mouth on the floor until the next skill - even though that is completely unsanitary!!!!! i don't know about the blood pressure though - next time i won't forget the numbers, but it does say in the handbook that if you hear the beat immediately on deflation, deflate the cuff completely. was 150 immediately after 160??
thanks for reading, hopefully this gives others an idea of what the skill test is like.
so i had to finish doing that and then wash my hands, which was about 2-3 minutes off my time - it should have only been 1 (and maybe 1 min 30 seconds)
Speed Freak
81 Posts
No harm in wishing her well if she is still trying. Maybe six months from now it's me posting about still not passing my own skills tests.