MNMC Nurses' Competency Exam study plan
MNMC Nurses' Competency Exam · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Patient Safety and Risk Management
Define the six Joint Commission-style National Patient Safety Goals categories and map each to a bedside nursing action you perform or observe.
Differentiate error types (slip, lapse, mistake, violation) and classify 10 short incident vignettes by type and preventability.
Explain how a just-culture reporting system differs from a punitive one and list three barriers to near-miss reporting.
Apply the hierarchy of effectiveness to five risk controls and rank them from least to most reliable.
Draft a personal safety-event reporting workflow from recognition through documentation and disclosure.
Your checkpoint
A one-page risk register of 10 patient-safety hazards with likelihood, severity, current control, and one proposed stronger control for each.
Patient Safety and Risk Management & Emergency and Critical Care Response
Demonstrate the SBAR handoff structure on three written clinical scenarios, keeping each under 90 seconds of spoken content.
Identify fall-risk factors and select matched interventions for five patient profiles, including delirium and post-op ambulation.
Describe pressure-injury staging and prevention bundles, then apply a risk scale to three cases.
Sequence the first five actions in a rapid-response or code-blue activation, including role assignment and closed-loop communication.
Explain restraint use criteria, monitoring frequency, and the documentation required for compliance.
Your checkpoint
Three completed SBAR handoff scripts plus a timed self-recording or written transcript scored against a 10-item handoff checklist.
Medication Administration and Pharmacology
Calculate weight-based, pediatric, and infusion-rate doses across 20 practice problems without a calculator error.
Compare high-alert medication classes and state the independent double-check requirement for each.
Explain the rights of medication administration and identify which right is breached in 10 error vignettes.
Interpret common drug-lab interactions and recognize three adverse drug event patterns requiring provider notification.
Outline the steps for a suspected medication error, from patient assessment through reporting and disclosure.
Your checkpoint
A 20-item medication calculation set at 90% or better accuracy, with worked solutions and error-analysis notes for any missed item.
Medication Administration and Pharmacology & Infection Prevention and Control
Build a personal high-alert medication quick-reference covering anticoagulants, insulin, opioids, and concentrated electrolytes.
Differentiate therapeutic, toxic, and subtherapeutic drug levels for four commonly monitored medications.
Explain the chain of infection and apply it to break the chain in three hospital-acquired infection scenarios.
Describe standard precautions versus transmission-based precautions and select correct PPE for five patient presentations.
Explain the indications, technique, and audit criteria for hand hygiene using the WHO five moments.
Your checkpoint
A two-page high-alert medication and infection-prevention reference card, self-quizzed to 85% or better on a 25-item recall check.
Infection Prevention and Control & Clinical Assessment and Monitoring
Explain central-line, catheter-associated UTI, and ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention bundles and their audit measures.
Identify multidrug-resistant organism transmission risks and the isolation and cleaning steps that interrupt them.
Perform a head-to-toe assessment sequence on a simulated patient and verbalize normal versus abnormal findings.
Interpret vital-sign trends and early warning scores to identify deterioration two hours before decompensation.
Correlate focused assessment findings (breath sounds, heart tones, abdominal exam, neuro checks) with likely underlying pathophysiology.
Your checkpoint
A written head-to-toe assessment script plus three early-warning-score case analyses with escalation decisions and rationale.
Clinical Assessment and Monitoring & Nursing Interventions and Procedures
Interpret common lab and diagnostic values (CBC, BMP, coagulation, ABG, glucose, cultures) and flag critical thresholds.
Explain indications, contraindications, and post-procedure monitoring for five common bedside procedures, such as urinary catheterization, NG tube placement, wound care, IV insertion, and blood transfusion.
Describe transfusion reaction types and the immediate nursing response for each.
Sequence pre-, intra-, and post-procedure nursing responsibilities for two procedures of your choice.
Identify documentation elements that make a procedure record legally and clinically defensible.
Your checkpoint
A procedure checklist for two selected procedures with pre-, intra-, and post-steps, critical values, and documentation fields.
Nursing Interventions and Procedures & Professional Ethics, Legal, and Regulatory Practice
Explain informed consent elements, capacity assessment, and the nurse's role when consent is questioned.
Distinguish negligence, malpractice, battery, and defamation using five short case scenarios.
Describe mandatory reporting obligations, HIPAA privacy rules, and appropriate release of information in three vignettes.
Apply the ANA-style ethical provisions to two moral-distress scenarios and articulate a defensible action plan.
Explain advance directives, surrogate decision-making, and the nurse's role in goals-of-care conversations.
Your checkpoint
A legal-ethical case brief of 600-800 words analyzing one scenario across consent, documentation, reporting, and ethics, with a decision and justification.
Communication and Interprofessional Collaboration & Emergency and Critical Care Response
Demonstrate conflict de-escalation and assertive communication using DESC or similar scripting in three role-play scenarios.
Explain interprofessional role boundaries and the escalation path when a concern is not addressed.
Sequence the primary and secondary survey in a deteriorating patient and state the interventions for each finding.
Describe massive transfusion, sepsis, and anaphylaxis bundles and the nurse's time-critical actions in each.
Complete a timed mixed-domain practice test and analyze every missed item by domain and error cause.
Your checkpoint
A full-length timed practice test score report with a written remediation plan for the three weakest domains.
Milestones
Week 2: Score 80% or better on a 25-item self-made quiz covering patient safety and emergency response, and complete all three SBAR scripts against the handoff checklist.
Week 4: Achieve 90% or better on the 20-item medication calculation set and 85% or better on the high-alert and infection-prevention recall check.
Week 6: Correctly interpret 15 of 18 lab and diagnostic values, including all critical thresholds, and complete both procedure checklists.
Week 8: Score 75% or better on the timed mixed-domain practice test with no domain below 60%, and submit the remediation plan for the three weakest domains.