Did You Ever Embarrass Yourself During A CNA Examination? Here’s What You Must Do

Did You Ever Embarrass Yourself During A CNA Examination? Here's What You Must Do

CNA stands for Certified Nursing Assistant and is essential in any hospital setting. Their responsibilities make them an integral part of the patient process in the healthcare system. 

CNA may be considered an entry-level position, but it’s a significant stepping stone to other healthcare professions. The experience you gain as a CNA can help you prepare for nursing or healthcare management work. You can say it’s just the beginning of your medical career.

The requirements to be a CNA may vary depending on your region, but the general process is the same. The perfect example of a similar requirement is passing the CNA examination which we will discuss further.

What is a CNA Examination and What do CNAs do in Hospitals?

The CNA exam is a certification test for aspiring Certified Nursing Assistants. It consists of two parts which are the written portion and the clinical skills portion. You can see that the test is designed to assess the candidate’s mastery of both knowledge and skills.

The written portion consists of a multiple choice section with 60 questions and the candidate has 90 minutes to complete them. Meanwhile, the clinical skills test needs the candidates to physically perform nursing tasks. This is done in front of an evaluator to whom they demonstrate 5 duties in 30 minutes.

Once you pass the exam, what next? The duties of a CNA involve a lot of patient care, often under the supervision of a nurse. Their tasks range from the simplest to the most complex responsibilities regarding patients. For example, they can be tasked to move patients and gather medical supplies. But they also need to offer assistance in some safety and medical procedures.

Suffice it to say, CNAs are the Swiss army knives of the hospital in that they’re the jack-of-all-trades. Even if different hospitals have unique requirements, CNAs still help perform patient care.

That’s why if you dream of a medical career, it’s important to pass the CNA examination. You can do this by taking some best CNA practice tests. Doing so helps you be one step closer to your dream of helping patients and those in need.

One Step Towards Your Life as a CNA: How to Survive and Pass the CNA Exam

Thinking about the CNA exam can get you nervous and maybe lose some sleep before the big day. Such nerves can cause you to embarrass yourself during the exam so here are some tips to help avoid that.

Arrive Early On-Site

Arriving late leaves you feeling flustered and unsettled—not a good way to begin an exam. Ideally, you should arrive a few minutes early so you can relax and focus. Hurrying to the venue and fearing any more delays makes you more stressed than you already are.

When you’re stressed, you won’t be able to think straight and you’ll end up making mistakes. If you arrive early, you can sit somewhere and flip through your reviewer or cards. Skim through the content to quickly recall what you learned and calmly take the test when it starts.

Listen Carefully to the Proctor’s Instructions

While it’s not supposed to be embarrassing to ask the instructions to be repeated, many still get shamed over it. Hence, you might find it embarrassing to ask the proctor to repeat their instructions.

To avoid this, you need to pay special attention when they speak. If there’s anything you didn’t understand, ask your questions. It’s better to swallow a bit of pride than risk getting a low score on the test.

Before You Dive In, Pace Yourself

It’s always important to pace yourself before diving into a task, like testing the water’s depths before a dive. In this case, have a skim of the entire test material then plan how to pace yourself. How long should you spend on each item and which questions will need more time than the others?

If you’ve taken CNA practice tests, you’d know what kind of questions can pop up and eat at your time. You can say that proper time management is key in this exam and you’re not allowed to miss a beat.

Read Directions Carefully More Than Once

An embarrassing moment in any exam is knowing the right answers but answering incorrectly. Sometimes, you get so excited to encounter a question whose answer you know very well. And you forget to read the instruction carefully, hence, the mistakes.

Rather than raising your score, you end up lowering it with the rookie mistake of misunderstanding directions. That’s why you should read the directions until it penetrates your understanding. Read it as many times as you need so you won’t make any mistakes.

Be Strategic in Multiple Choice

By pacing yourself, you can be strategic in answering the multiple-choice section. With limited time, it’s best to answer all of the easy questions and use the leftover time to answer the difficult ones. For difficult questions, you need to read all the potential answers and eliminate the least likely answer. 

Usually, it’s the qualifiers that turn the seemingly correct sentences wrong, like always, usually, and never. You also frequently encounter “except” which may be followed by the wrong phrase.

Another tip is that just because the statement is true doesn’t mean it’s the correct answer to the question. You’ll face some moments when the statement you read is factual, but it’s not the correct answer. 

The question is asking for a completely different answer so these instances can be misleading. Taking CNA practice tests can help avoid these mistakes and instances in the future.

Conclusion

Taking an exam can be nerve-wracking and you end up doing things you wish you never did. Anyone can make mistakes during a critical period in their lives, but it’s always best to avoid them as much as possible. During certification and licensure exams, you’d want to be prepared for any possible incident.

Hence, taking precautions and free CNA practice tests are some of the ways to be in your peak condition. A lot of them may sound basic, like arriving early and listening to instructions carefully. But because they’re basic, candidates tend to overlook them all the same, which makes it more embarrassing to fail at them.

And the act of being alert to details and listening to instructions are vital traits in a CNA. How can you succeed in your career if you can’t do the simplest act of listening and paying attention? The CNA exam is just another way to prove that you want this job and life as a CNA.

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