Jaime was hesitant about taking the CCRN exam. She was a 15-year veteran of the ICU whose expertise was counted on in orienting new staff and precepting students. Other nurses respected her knowledge and skill. Physicians recognized her as the “go-to” person to get things done. Jaime heard from co-workers that the CCRN exam was quite tricky. Even Fran, the 30-year veteran, failed the exam. Jaime did not want to be subjected to that kind of humiliation, not to mention the wasted money.
At the same time, Dr. David Woodruff was teaching CCRN seminars all over the country and disappointed with the results. In one workshop, 100 nurses came to the program, 10 took the exam, and only 3 passed the exam. Many nurses were missing out on the benefits of becoming certified. The preparation course was to blame!
Certification review courses are usually a brain dump of experts talking about their area of interest. Although these are interesting, the content is not focused on the exam and can mislead nurses into feeling prepared. So, the first step was to change the focus of the material and center the content around the exam. Some might call this teaching to the test. It is—but for a reason. The AACN believes that the content on the CCRN exam is the essential information for critical care nurses to know. That is what you should be studying. Of course, it also prepares you to take the exam.
Next was to get more nurses taking the exam. If only 10 out of 100 nurses who attend a seminar take the exam, then the workshop was not successful in its goal. The question was: why are only 10% of attendees taking the exam? Attendees told us that they were afraid that they would fail the exam. Out of the 100 people who paid to attend a CCRN review, 90% were worried they would fail and did not take the exam.
To end the fear of failing, we started a guarantee that everyone would pass! The first of its kind, our guarantee, eliminated the fear of failing. If you failed the exam, you would be able to retake the course for free and get free coaching from Dr. Woodruff. The results were astounding. First-time exam takers pass rate increased from 70% to 92%, and the overall pass rate became 96%.
More important was the engagement of the participants. Instead of 10% of participants taking the exam, now 100% were taking the exam, and 96% were successful. For the same 100 nurses who took the class, 96 were now successfully certified.
Jaime heard of Dr. Woodruff’s course and registered to take the online course. She participated in all the modules, studied using Dr. Woodruff’s “Teaching Tips,” and took all the practice exams. To her surprise, she learned a lot. After all, Jaime has a lot of experience. Jaime took the exam and passed on the first attempt. Afterward, she told Dr. Woodruff that her confidence increased using CCRN Certification Coach®. Jaime told many of her co-workers about the course, and they have become CCRN certified as well.
Learn more about CCRN certification through the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Want to learn more about Dr. Woodruff’s guaranteed CCRN Certification Coach® program? Click here to get started.
