What is CPNE?

Yep - you got it. It's the Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination, by far the most nerve-wracking requirement involved in Excelsior's AS Nursing curriculum. Often there is a good deal of anxiety that goes along with CPNE-related posts.

It's a test of pretty basic clinical skills, but it's only offered in a few locations across the country. That often means a great deal of travel for students (after a long wait time to test). That, combined with a pretty stringent set of critical elements for passing each section, makes the stress level pretty high for most.

Wow! That does sound pretty nerve-wracking. So what do they test you on - IV starts, foley insertion, that type of thing? Are you tested on people or mannequins? Are these not tested in the clinical setting?

The CPNE takes place at a hospital and it's a combination of testing on actual inpatients and check-offs on skills lab mannequins.

In the skills lab, they do things like a wound dressing station and a station where you demonstrate different med administration/injection techniques. With the patients, much of what you do is assessment-based. There are certain assessments that you perform on every patient (like vitals and IV site checks), and other assessments that you may or may not be assigned (like a neurovascular assessment on a postop ortho patient).