National Certification Exam Candidates

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  • 1.  Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group

    Posted 06-02-2023 05:01

    Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group!

     

     


    We are moving ahead in the Selekman/Cogan School Nursing Certification Review book to chapter 3 - Health Appraisal

          Principles of Health Appraisal
          Screening
          Health History
          Physical Assessment

    Don’t forget the questions!

    Corresponding chapters in Selekman, Shannon, and Yonkaitis School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text 3rd Edition Chapters 14-18

    1. Health Promotion and Screening for School-Age Children
    2. Disease Prevention in Schools
    3. Students with Common Health Complaints
    4. Health Issues Related to Physical Activity and Athletics
    5. Skin Disorders

     

     This chapter represents approximately 20% of the content of the NCSN exam.  As the graphic says, "Keep Calm, I'm A School Nurse, because this is the heart of our practice, what we do all day, every day.  Let's keep the conversation going! Thank you to all of the school nurses who have shared their exam review experiences.  We learn from each other.  Much appreciation to @Pat Krin, MSN, RN, NCSN-E, FNP-BC-Retired, FNASN, for providing clarity and guidance on many important issues that are raised through our discussions.

    ________________________________________________________________

    Here are the upcoming NCSN test windows so that you can plan accordingly:

    The exam will be available for the upcoming testing windows for Summer/Fall/2023:


                      

    As promised, here are more nursing test-taking strategies for multiple-choice questions: (retrieved from 11 Test Taking Tips & Strategies For Nurses * Nurseslabs)
    3. Pay Attention to Specific Details

      The well-written multiple-choice question is precisely stated, providing you with only the information needed to make the question or problem clear and specific. A careful reading of details in the stem can provide important clues to the correct option. For example:

      A male client is told that he will no longer be able to ingest alcohol if he wants to live. To effect a change in his behavior while he is in the hospital, the nurse should attempt to:

      • 1. Help the client set short-term dietary goals
      • 2. Discuss his hopes and dreams for the future
      • 3. Discuss the pathophysiology of the liver with him
      • 4.  Withhold approval until he agrees to stop drinking

      The specific cause to effect a change in his behavior while he is in the hospital is critical. Option 2 is not really related to his alcoholism. Option 3 may be part of educating the alcoholic, but you would not expect a behavioral change observable in the hospital to emerge from this discussion. Option 4 rejects the client as well as his behavior instead of only his behavior. Option 1, the correct answer, could result in an observable behavioral change while the client is hospitalized; for example, he could define ways to achieve short-term goals relating to diet and alcohol while in the hospital.

      4. Eliminate Clearly Wrong or Incorrect Answers

      Eliminate clearly incorrect, inappropriate, and unlikely answers to the question asked in the stem. By systematically eliminating distractors that are unlikely in the context of a given question, you increase the probability of selecting the correct answer. Eliminating. obvious distractors also allow you more time to focus on the options that appear to be potentially sound answers to the question. For example:

      The four levels of cognitive ability are:

      1. Assessing, analyzing, applying, evaluating
      2. Knowledge, analysis, assessing, comprehension
      3. Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis
      4. Medical-surgical nursing, obstetric nursing, psychiatric nursing

      Option 1 contains both cognitive levels and nursing behaviors, thus eliminating it from consideration. Option 4 is clearly inappropriate since the choices are all clinical areas. Both options 2 and 3 contain levels of cognitive ability; however, option 2 includes assessing, which is a nursing behavior. Therefore option 3 is correct. By reducing the plausible options, you reduce the material to consider and increase the probability of selecting the correct option.

      Don’t forget to check out the free Test Taking Strategies from Nurse Builders at https://ecourses.nursebuilders.net/courses/test-taking-techniques-a-guide-for-nursing-certification-exams

      Need Test Prep Materials? https://www.nbcsn.org/ncsn/the-exam/exam-prep/
      __________________________________________________________________

      Enjoy the process, nurses are life-long learners, it is in our DNA.  I am looking forward to hearing all about your experience.  Please share your comments this week in this thread.



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      Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
      New Jersey NASN Director
      School Nurse Camden City School District
      Faculty Rutgers-Camden School of Nursing
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    1. 2.  RE: Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group

      Posted 06-02-2023 08:22

      Good Morning and Happy Friday!

      I'm pretty disappointed in myself this week, I took the practice test at the end of chapter 3 yesterday and I did HORRIBLE!!!! I feel silly....this is what we do every day and I bombed the practice test :( So frustrating! I cant tell if im not reading the question correctly, or if I just dont know or cant recall the material.



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      Natasha Mandigo RN, BSN
      Registered Nurse
      RSU 64/MSAD 64
      Kenduskeag, ME United States
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    2. 3.  RE: Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group

      Posted 06-02-2023 09:21

      There are a lot of reasons why you may not be doing well. I strongly suggest that you spend $10 and an hour of your time to invest in https://ecourses.nursebuilders.net/courses/Nursing-Certification-Exam-Preparation-Studying-Anxiety-Management-Test-Taking-Techniques

      There is also a free one but does not deal with the anxiety management part. https://ecourses.nursebuilders.net/courses/test-taking-techniques-a-guide-for-nursing-certification-exams

      Send me the chapter and question # of a question that was difficult for you and I'll see if I can walk you through it.

      Make sure you are reading all of Robin's posts, they are very helpful.



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      Pat Krin, MSN, MSCP, RN, FNP-BC-Retired, NCSN-E, FNASN
      Executive Director
      NBCSN
      nbcsnexec@nbcsn.org
      www.nbcsn.org
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    3. 4.  RE: Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group

      Posted 06-04-2023 18:51
      Edited by Cynthia Samuel, PhD, RN, CSN-NJ, FNASN 06-04-2023 18:53

      Good afternoon everyone,

      I appreciate what Robin said in an earlier post about answering the exam questions at the end of the chapter first to find your weak areas then focus on that. Afterwards, review the areas you're stronger in. I find that helpful so when I took the exam questions at the end Chapter 3 and discovered I needed to focus more on the endocrine and nervous systems, I'm doing that. This also helps with your confidence level as well. In many instances, you're smarter than you think!



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      [Cynthia] [Samuel] [PhD, RN]
      [School Nurse]
      [Irvington BOE]
      [Irvington], [New Jersey] [USA]
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    4. 5.  RE: Welcome to Week #3 of our online study group

      Posted 06-05-2023 10:02

      I realized I need to slooooowww down! I did do the practice test at work in between students so I would hope that if I were at home I wouldn't have missed 2 because I was rushing. I missed 5 total but only 3 of them were true misses that I need to study. That's a big reminder during the test I need to not rush, read slowly and eliminate the obvious wrong answers



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      Sarah Casteline, RN , BSN
      Middle School Nurse
      Union County, NC
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