This test is divided into four sections which are both written and clinical and these include: Physician-Assisted Treatment (PAT), Clinical Skills Test (CSS), Theory of Mind Test, and the Nurse-Practitioner Competency Test. There are other sections such as General Education and Examination for Registered Nurses (GERN). For a complete overview of the various sections of the examination, it’s essential to have a grasp of the concepts that apply across all sections.
In the clinical skills section, nurses must demonstrate their competency in the different areas of the exam, including recognizing, preventing, diagnosing, and managing diseases, injuries, illnesses, and conditions of patients. These areas include: Communicating with patients and families, understanding the characteristics of their illness and disease, caring for them in a healthcare environment, evaluating their current state, evaluating their future state, and providing referrals and follow up care to help them. On the clinical skills section, nurses must also demonstrate their ability to understand and provide preventive care, manage acute and chronic conditions, and provide a variety of services to patients in a health care setting. At the end of the clinical skills part of the exam, nurses must demonstrate their ability to conduct assessments, identify problems and concerns, provide care and interventions, evaluate the effectiveness of their care, and document the care received.
Physician-Assisted Treatment, or PAST, is an examination designed to measure the level of skill and knowledge as a nurse has in the area of patient care. On this examination, nurses must be able to describe and manage physical therapy procedures, medications and equipment, laboratory tests, and the administration and interpretation of results. On the PAST portion, nurses must demonstrate the ability to assess and diagnose illness, provide care for patients who are unable to talk, describe conditions, and give treatments.
The Theory of Mind Test is designed to test nurses’ skills in their ability to determine and explain a patient’s state of mind and the patient’s mental status. The Theory of Mind Test measures a nurses’ ability to describe a patient’s thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors, and determine the cause and consequences of an individual’s mental condition. On the Theory of Mind Test, nurses must demonstrate their ability to provide diagnoses, describe patients’ reactions, determine causes, evaluate causes, and effects of symptoms and conditions, and their interactions with their environment, and other people, and the physical world, and medical treatments, and procedures, and laboratory procedures. On the Theory of Mind Test, nurses must demonstrate their ability to recognize and correctly interpret data provided by patients and their caregivers.
The Nursing Practitioner Competency Test is designed to measure nurses’ skills in the areas of nursing administration, nursing theory and practice, nursing theory of mind, and nursing practice. The test is divided into two parts and comprises: The Clinical Skills Test and the Theory of Mind Test. The Clinical Skills Test tests nurses’ knowledge of nursing theory including: the role and functions of nursing, the basic concepts of nursing, the relationship between nursing and patient care, understanding what patients need, understanding how to help the patient, and the patient’s views on nursing.
The Theory of Mind Test examines a nurses’ competency in the knowledge of the areas of patient care and clinical practice; they must demonstrate an ability to explain the role of the patient, the importance of nursing to his or her life and how the patient’s well-being affects the nurses’ own lives. They must also demonstrate an understanding of the patient’s needs and be able to give appropriate treatment and recommendations based on the nursing professional’s understanding of the patient’s symptoms and conditions.
In addition to being able to perform well on each part of the nursing exam, you also need to make sure that you are prepared before taking the nursing exam. You should take the time to learn about the exam and how to prepare for it. If you choose a good school, there will be resources and instructors on hand to answer any questions that you may have.
