board exam – Anesthesia Guidebook

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Today I’m joined by John Fratianni who created the content for this episode as part of his Doctorate in Nurse Anesthesia Practice at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. John earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and completed his critical care nursing training with the United States Air Force where he served 7 years on active duty. John conducted a study to determine if ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) program, can assist us in providing anesthesia care to our patients.

I want to give a special shout out to Peter Stallo who founded Prodigy Anesthesia and SIMVANA, both of which are digital educational tools for anesthesia trainees. Peter worked closely with John to grant access to Prodigy’s vast database of board-style anesthesia questions. If you haven’t checked out Prodigy or SIMVANA – which is a virtual reality based anesthesia education platform, links are in the show notes. I also want to personally thank Peter for creating a great board prep program in Prodigy… it’s all my wife and I and several of our classmates used to study for boards and we passed on the first try. Nice job, Peter and thank you!

Since this episode is part of John’s doctoral work with Virginia Commonwealth University, he kindly requests that you take a quick survey that’s embedded in the show notes. It’s 5 questions and will literally take you 30 seconds… click the link and give John & me some feedback on how we did with this.

With that, let’s get to the show.

Quick 5-Question Post Podcast Survey HERE

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This episode covers the NBCRNA’s SEE & NCE exams for SRNAs/RRNAs. Get these on lock down. Thrive in training.

The Self-Evaluation Exam (SEE) is a 240-question computerized adaptive exam that’s designed for three reasons:

help the SRNA gauge their progress in their training program
help program faculty gauge how well they’re preparing students
help SRNAs prepare for the NCE board exam

NBCRNA’s website for the SEE is here: SEE Resources.

The National Certification Exam (NCE) is the board exam required to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).

The NCE is a 100-170 question computerized adaptive exam that includes 30 random, non-graded questions. All examinees will take at least 100 questions. The exam shuts off between 100 – 170 questions once a minimum passing (or failing) standard is met. The cost of NCE is $995 and is available only to graduates of accredited nurse anesthesiology training programs.

NBCRNA’s website for the NCE is here: NCE Resources.

The NBCRNA also provides an exam tutorial for the SEE/NCE, which is an extremely valuable resources: SEE/NCE Exam Tutorial.

In this podcast, I break down the SEE & NCE in detail and share advice for how to approach both exams. I also go in-depth on preparation for the NCE in episode 14 of Anesthesia Guidebook with expert-exam coach, LTC Peter Strube, DNP, CRNA. Dr Strube has coached nurse anesthesia trainees in passing boards both ahead of their initial try at boards and, most often, after they’ve failed. His insights are invaluable for preparing for boards so I’d definitely recommend checking out that episode.

I will also hit on the NCE in an upcoming show about wrapping up training and preparing for the transition to practice.

You can watch the trailer for SOMM here.

As always, drop me an email, IG/Facebook message or comment here on the website with your questions or comments.

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