I just wanted to say good luck to all the new Canadian grads writing the Canadian Registered Nursing Exam today. It WILL be a long, difficult day, but you will make it!

For those not familiar with the test, it is an eight hour long test made up of hundreds of multiple choice questions, and a very large, daunting section of short answer questions. There are not a lot of questions that force you to know specific data. Instead, it mostly looks at your ability to think through situations and ensure you would act appropriately.

Some complain that the test is too focused on psychosocial/ethical/community issues and doesn’t actually test whether or not someone knows how to be a nurse (i.e. knowing every complication to every drug, knowing every nook and cranny of anatomy etc.). To those people I say, “perhaps you’re defining how to be a nurse wrong.”

All in all, it is just a test! The vast majority of those graduating from a Canadian university will pass (something like 96%) because Canadian universities have standardized curriculum. What I mean is, the test isn’t all that different from the ones you get during your education. If you passed those, you’ll pass this one.

I want to add that I am extremely proud to come from a country where almost every new nurse graduating has a bachelor’s degree! Education is far too undervalued in other countries. Even if you plan to be a bedside nurse for your entire life, PLEASE do not underestimate the value of more education.