Hello everyone! For this post, I will be sharing how I passed the Trauma Nursing Core Coure (TNCC) by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA). The purpose of this course is to essentially provide you with some basic knowledge on the thought process and interventions necessary to care for trauma patients. Keep reading if you are interested!

WHY DID YOU TAKE THIS COURSE?

I took this course as it is a requirement for all nurses working in the Emergency Department at my hospital at the one year mark. Following this, you may “officially” be assigned to work in the trauma bay. The course consists of four portions: precourse modules, live course, hands on portion and the online exam. To make this easier, I will split this post into four sections accordingly. Let us begin…

1. PRE-COURSE MODULES

Once you have followed the instructions and registered for your course, you will be assigned about 18 pre-course modules. I completed about 2-3 a day which ended up taking a week. Following this completion, I would recommend picking up your TNCC book (or have it delivered-this depends on your facility). Please start reading this book at 2-3 weeks out from the live course. There are about 20 chapters, and I would recommend reading about 2 chapters per day. I would not suggest heavy note-taking, instead make general highlights or sticky notes as needed. After reading the chapters, take the pre-course module test and just review for the live course!

2. LIVE COURSE

The live course portion takes two days. For me, the first day was scheduled 8a.m. to 5p.m. (we ended up leaving at 3 p.m.) and the second from 8a.m. to 2 p.m. (I left at 11:40 a.m.). The first day was stricly lecture and practice simulations. The second day was wrapping up with a few extra topics and finished off with an individual graded simulation.

My bigest piece of advice for the live course is to pay attention. The instructor will literally give you the topics you need to hone in on when reviewing (jot those down). There will also be practice questions and practice simulations built in to help.

3. HANDS-ON PORTION

For the hands-on portion, you can best prepare during your course preparation. Hear me out… In the precourse modules, ENA provided a video of what your individual hands-on portion will look like and the back of the book has the grading rubric. Review that multiple times. Know your A,B,C,D,E,F,G, (LMNOP),H.

This will help you, unless you are like me and get nervous as the focus of attention. I was stuttering and fumbling through my evaluation. Those type of things are not my jam and I sound like I don’t know anything…Anyways, here is another really helpful clue. EVERYTHING YOU WILL NEED WILL BE ON A TABLE!!! Keep that in mind!

4. ONLINE EXAM

I found this to be the easiest part for me. This portion is open book, but if you read the book before the course and paid attention during the course, you won’t have to reference it too much. You have seven days following live course completion and 2 2 hour attempts at the 50 question test. I strongly recommend taking it the same day you finish the course. Don’t wait.

Those are my tips for the TNCC course! I hope this helps someone. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments or concerns.