Tips on the AANP FNP Certification Exam

Upon entering the testing site they will give you paper and pen and you can make notes before beginning the exam.  I have attached a list of what notes I placed onto the paper before beginning the exam.

These are the notes I jotted down before taking exam:

Medication suffix:
ACEI – pril
ARB – sartan
BB – lol
CCB – pine/mil

Lymph – viral
Neuts – bacterial
Poly & Lymph – (close together – viral, far apart – bacterial)
Eocin – allergic or parasite

Microcytic
Iron def anemia
Thalassemia

Macrocyctic
B12
Pernicious
Folate

Normocitic
ACD (anemia chronic disease)

Aortic region – 2nd/3rd ICS right sternal border
Pulmonic – 2nd/3rd left
Tricuspic – 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th ICS left
Mitral – near apex, 5th or 6th ICS MCL

S1 – apex
S2 – base
S2 split – pulmonic
S3 – apex left lateral decub
S4 – apex left lateral

There are many variations of the examination and is basically the luck of the draw, this is what I remember being on the exam:
HIV – carnii pneumonia and medication you would give prop.
uterine sizing
MVP and A fib

know heart murmurs, several on my exam

molluscum contagiosum 

glaucoma question
know Rinne and Weber test and AC vs. BC conduction and the lateralization and conductive vs. sensorineural hearing loss
Rovsing’s sign
scarlet fever  
cellulitis
otitis externa  
actinic keratoses
asthma 
leukemia 
several questions on pharyngitis
pyelonephritis
testicular torsion
how the prostate feels in BPH
gynecomastia 
Lupus- SLE  
a couple of questions on immunization 
several questions asked on diseases which labs you would order
Alzheimer’s and delirium
several thyroid questions (hyper & hypo)
couple of DM type 1 and type 2 questions
Hepatitis A question
several Hepatitis questions and gave the labs so know antigen, antibody, core to determine if they are infection, immune, etc..
STD’s 
infant feeding questions
peripheral artery disease
sulfonylurea – mech of action
microalbumin question
rubella
Mono
lumbar radiculopathy – know how to test
fifth disease

Study and apply critical thinking skills and I would also suggest taking one of the review classes. 

Love Unscripted…

Love Unscripted

This book has it all… sweet romance, suspense and heartache; it also has bodyguards, the paparazzi and obsessed fans. There were times I laughed out loud and other times I had tears rolling down my cheeks along with the characters, I also found myself on the edge of my seat as the drama in the characters’ lives unfolded. Tina Reber has managed to do what very few authors are able to do; she has created characters so real that has you feeIing that you know them instantly. I was hooked from the very first page. The author shows you the intimate side of what it is like to be in the spotlight, having no privacy, and being a target of the tabloids and stalkers.

This book is a peek into the life of a famous young movie star whose life has been taken over by paparazzi and screaming fans that chase him relentlessly, his name is Ryan and he is the Hollywood Heart throb new in town. As a result, he meets the one woman in the world who hasn’t seen his movies, read the books and doesn’t care anything about meeting him. Taryn Mitchell is a self-sufficient tavern owner, who like most women, has had her heart broken multiple times; however, she is strong and does not mind being single, she is actually happy being single in lieu of having her heart broken again. The story is warm, funny, heartbreaking, and builds tension and drama throughout. I am anxiously awaiting the next book so I can continue on the journey along with Taryn and Ryan.

Highly recommend this one you will absolutely love it even though it is a long read the author draws you in and keeps you wanting more!

Need You Now

Need You Now is another awesome winner from an author who never disappoints his readers. Wall Street is rocked by the discovery that “financial genius” Abe Cushman was running a massive Ponzi scheme. A letter came with the pre-publication version from the author. He is of counsel to the law firm that filed the first class action suit against Madoff. There was some thinking that for such a scheme to go unnoticed there must have been some government involvement. This is the novelization of that conspiracy theory. Immediately, questions need to be answered: who knew he was fraud, why did no on one stop him, and where did the   billions of dollars go?   Patrick Lloyd, a young man who is rising to the top at the world’s largest Swiss bank, is shocked to learn that his ex-girlfriend Lilly could have been a player in Cushman’s fraud. When it seems that some of her nefarious “clients” will stop at nothing to get their share of the missing money, Patrick and Lilly are literally running for their life. The plot is somewhat labyrithine as one might expect. A young investment banker hooks up with the FBI to do some inside sleuthing which might just get them all killed. This story is filled with surprising twists, Wall Street insights, and a great New York “feel,” Need You Now is a book you won’t be able to put down and demands finishing.  Another Grippando great.

A highly recommended read.

The Language of…

The Language of Flowers

This is the story of Victoria, from her abandonment at birth, through childhood abuse, to her orphanage experiences and her difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships. Victoria’s life is portrayed with a depth of a feeling that pulls the reader into the story and having a caring feeling about this strange and sometimes difficult young woman. Victoria is a difficult foster child, having been shuffled from place to place, only once finding the love and affection she needed and desired Yet, the voices of the past homes and her social worker cause her to act out in ways that are inappropriate and she loses that place where she found acceptance and security; and began to learn the language of flowers. The story moves back and forth in time and place within the span of her life which brings greater meaning to why she behaves the way she does with people she meets.

Victoria Jones has spent her life in the foster care system. At 18 she is released to the street, homeless, uneducated, angry and without resources for living. The novel rotates between past and present where we learn of Victoria’s triumphs and hardships. For most of Victoria’s young adult life, she spent it with Elizabeth who teaches her about the language of flowers and that each flower has a distinct meaning. She carries this knowledge to present day. As she makes her own garden, then finds work with a florist, she struggles to overcome the anger and distrust that has been so deeply ingrained. Love and reconciliation come, although we are left with the reality of so many foster children and that is the struggle to accept themselves and the love others offer.
Victoria kept mentally reconnecting to her childhood to find understanding and meaning in her own life. There was a personal relationship with the flowers Victoria worked with and it was evident with all those who became involved in her world. Customers continued to come to her with specific requests for flowers to heal and/or help them in some way. During the time working at the florist, she meets Grant; Elizabeth’s nephew. He shares her love of flowers which blooms to actual love. Some parts in this novel were very sad seeing what kids in the foster care system have to go through and how it affects their future. In the end, Victoria makes peace with her life and starts a new beginning.

Part of the authors goal in writing this novel is to expose the abusive nature of the foster care systems in the United States. At times, the novel can be quite difficult to read. This is a heartbreaking story of a damaged young woman who communicates through flowers. The story tracks this young woman who became emancipated at 18 years of age, through her first year or so out of state custody. She has been in failed foster care situations or institutionalized in group homes. Being detached and removed, she throws her every waking moment into the only thing she can love unconditionally and that is the language of flowers. The language of flowers is a complex symbolism that came to social power in the Victorian ages and was only known by a select few; we find that Victoria uses every flower as a message of animosity, hate, friendship and all other things in between throughout the story.

The author includes an addendum at the end of the book called Victoria’s Dictionary of Flowers. Different flowers express different emotions in the book. The flowers add color, tone, and feeling to the writing. The author uses all five senses throughout the entire book. A delightful book even as it portrays the problems our society has within the foster care system. The author writes of what she knows as she is, herself, a foster parent. A definite must read to add to everyone’s collection.

Active Interviewing

This is a great tool and provides strategies to change the basic dynamics of job hunting and offers a contemporary new outlook on interviewing.  Authored by Eric Kramer and written for job seekers at every professional level. The book offers strategies and tools that are easy to understand and implement.  The content within this book will help you to actively communicate your background and experience, and identify how it is relevant to the requirements posted for a particular position.  This book offers more than just focusing on typical interview suggestions, what to wear, how to give a good handshake and how to project a positive attitude, it focuses on higher-level strategies that have been proven to help with interviewing. Highly recommend to those looking for a new position or planning to look for a new position in the future.

This is a great…

This is a great book for young readers and is full of wonder. It’s set in a magical Earth in which an evil nightmare Lord Pitch, arch-nemesis of the benevolent Man in the Moon, escapes his ancient bonds and sets out to invade the dreams of all of Earth’s children. In his way stand the old wizard Ombric Shalazar, his former-bandit-turned-apprentice Nicholas St. North, their mechanical djinni and the girl Katherine. Along the way we encounter a mysterious spectral boy, moon-obsessed Himalayan lamas, domesticated bears, fighting trees and a troop of speargun-armed Yetis, all in a sort of quasi-Russian mashup of real Earth folklore and tradition.

The story is fun and whimsical, the setting is enchanting and the language is appropriate for the attended age group. Those virtues carry the story despite some features of the book that are a little odd for a middle reader. In particular, the heroes’ quest only materializes two-thirds of the way into the story, which is also when we first start seeing anything resembling a child protagonist.

My grandson is only in kindergarten and has been reading the story to me with some difficulty with some of the words, however he is enjoying the book and asks daily to read it to his younger brother, it is engaging for him so I would Highly recommend this book.

The Night Etern…

The Night Eternal is book three in the trilogy. This is a vampire trilogy. The ending of the last book leaves the Master, a source of a blood borne parasitic infestation with vampire like symptoms, and has almost total control over the world. His followers have set up concentration camps that are dedicated to harvesting blood. The remaining humans wait in terror for their capture and transport to the concentration camps.

Abraham Setrakian, the old-world vampire hunter who has been trailing the Master for decades, is dead, and Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the epidemiologist who first understood the nature of the new threat, now spends most of his time in a pill-induced haze, pining for his lost son, who, though still human, is under the Master’s thrall. There remains some resistance, vampire hunter “Gus” has set up base in the now unused Columbia University campus, and exterminator Vasiliy Fet is working to translate an ancient, silver-bound book that Setrakian seemed to think contained the knowledge necessary to destroy the Master for good. When Dr. Nora Martinez, Goodweather’s former colleague and lover who is now attached to Fet, is taken to a blood camp, Goodweather, Fet and Elizalde, along with the mysterious half-vampire Mr. Quinlan, must come together to free her, and then to find a way to end the Master’s reign once and for all.

Highly recommend the entire trilogy, horrifying read.

Spanish-English…

Spanish-English English-Spanish Medical Dictionary

A comprehensive resource for healthcare providers and healthcare students allowing us to break the language barrier we face often when trying to converse with Spanish-speaking patients. This is an indispensable resource as the book contains almost all health related terms you will come in contact with during the conversation between you the healthcare provider and the Spanish speaking client.

I highly recommend this book as a necessity for healthcare students and providers. This new edition provides faster and easier access to comprehensive medical terms, technological related medical terms, medical abbreviations; it also provides definitions, translations, tips on pronunciation, signs and symptoms of commonly occurring disorders seen in practice, and practical phrases used in the daily communication with your clients.

You also will receive access to the Point website featuring audio pronunciation glossary with Spanish audio, image bank, and appendices formatted as PDFs.
I think this dictionary is excellent! It is the most comprehensive medical Spanish dictionary I have found. It is an Excellent Tool for Translations. I have also noted the hospital Spanish interpreters using this book in their daily routine contact with Spanish speaking patients.

I love all of L…

I love all of Laura Lippman’s books and was excited to get another great read from the author.  In this book she explores childhood friendships and childhood secrets. The story goes back and forth from the late 70’s to current time. The story takes place in the woods around Dickeyville, a suburb inside of Baltimore, MD. They story is a tale of five children, Gwen, Mickey and the Halloran brothers, Sean, Tim and Gordon (aka Go-Go), they spend their summers exploring, far exceeding the boundaries of their parents’ permission to remain within the outskirts of the wilderness. The unity of five, Go-Go (Gordon) the youngest, following the older kids. What is so interesting is that she writes from her past childhood, making the story more believable. The characters are well developed.  The story continues around a night filled with tragedy from a hurricane, the children often visited a cottage where lives a man with his prize possession a guitar, the children come to know him and share their stories. The story goes on to find that Gordon (Go-Go) has died from an accident or suicide in automobile accident thirty two years later, and the others are reunited at this sad time. Gordon’s past is filled with secrets, learning of his out of control ways and learning that he was the bad boy out of the three Halloran brothers. The story moves along in a steady pace and we then find that the others are surrounded by the loss of Gordon (Go-Go) and we find out that he has hidden the most worrisome of all the secrets of the group. The author does a great job in describing how the secrets have passed from generation to generation.  Lippman has a gift in providing insight into how our past can come back to remind us that our previous ways in childhood can resurface and haunt us in our adulthood.

Antibiotic Resi…

Antibiotic Resistance: Understanding and Responding to an Emerging Crisis

Antibiotic resistance is a critical issue for health care providers, misuse or overuse of antibiotics places individuals at risk of infectious diseases becoming incurable. The book starts off slow; however, the introduction is wonderful and explains the basics of how antibiotics work and why they fail. The chapters’ progress in depth exploring the DNA issues behind how bacteria are destroyed. The information provided in this book is presented in a concise and straight-forward manner, and is a necessity for all healthcare personnel. Being in the medical field, I feel that everyone would benefit from reading this book to enable individuals as patient’s to grasp why providers do not easily prescribe antibiotics, and the reason this is now becoming the focus current and future practice.