Apex Anesthesia Review Course

I have recently been approached to give my opinion on a new SRNA board review website Apex Anesthesia Review (www.apexanesthesia.com) that is available now. Before I begin, in a  recent comment, it was mentioned that they feel "A Student CRNA blog" introduces a lot of new "products". I am not sure if they were saying its a good thing or bad. The information presented about the mentioned courses are  mainly introduction to the products without any promotion or rejection of their effectiveness. Everyone has different learning styles so the idea of me discussing these is to allow an insight into the courses that can help you all determine if they meet your learning needs or not. Regardless, I wanted to start off by saying that the products that I discuss on my blog do not provide me with any monetary compensation. In fact, I look for terms that allow me to keep a neutral, unbiased stand towards the product. Thanks to the developers of Apex Anesthesia Review Course, Kevin Baker CRNA and Daniel Frasca CRNA, DNAP, I have had the opportunity to personally browse their website courses and get an insight on how it works.

Apex Anesthesia Review is an online SRNA review course that provides students with a comprehensive review including multiple tutorials and question banks on topics tested on NBCRNA board exam. The topics are divided into 9 units along with review exams and national certification practice exams. Student subscriptions allow unlimited access to all these courses from your computers and tablets. Smartphones may also be used to access review exams and full length practice board exams. Student course progress is tracked and communicated between all compatible platform allowing easy transition from computer to ipad. The courses are created with in-depth details of the anesthesia topics and are supported by necessary diagrams and illustrations. Questions have been formatted similar to the NBCRNA boards such as multiple selection, drag and drop, illustration questions, and calculations. Apex courses are stored in the cloud and are updated without the need for students to get software update.

Pricing is based on a subscription model and a group rates are available for groups larger than 10. Students are also able to contact the CRNAs who created this program for personalized help if needed. According to the developers, they currently have a 100% pass rate. However, if a student fails, they provide help to create a customized plan and also provide a full refund if the student can't pass the boards after 3 attempts.
Browsing through Apex website, there were some things that I think SRNAs will definitely benefit from and some I had to think over a bit. Initially,from a student's perspective, I was worried about it not being available offline. However, I ended up favoring this change once I compared it with downloadable review programs. It allows students to access courses from almost anywhere and on any device since there is no program to download. All you do is login and pick up where you left off. Another tool that I really like is the "index" section which provides a straight forward, to the point list of very specific topics that are easily accessible with just a click.

Overall, Apex anesthesia seems to be a well organized and to-the-point review course website for SRNAs (and CRNAs in the near future). Hopefully my  brief introduction to the website provides all anesthesia folks with enough information to see if Apex anesthesia is the way for you to study for your boards and earn those four letters behind your name...C.R.N.A.

Feel free to help out fellow SRNAs by commenting below if you would like to share your personal experience with the Apex course. Also, you can contact this developers at this link if you have any more specific questions. http://www.apexanesthesia.com/contact_apex/

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Thanks again for reading!

Question Bank Example: Regional Anesthesia

First of all, Happy 2012  Everyone!

Its been a busy start for me and I am already paying for enjoying Christmas and New Years. Test next Wednesday and Friday and haven't even gone through the lectures once!! Studying hours and hours!
Plus, it seems like stupid Care plans are meant to be stuck with nurses FOREVER! Like always, they are unnecessary stress, if I don't have enough from the upcoming test.

Anyways, I wanted to share my upcoming plan of making a question bank for the various topics. So, just have a few examples of some I made for my coming exam.
Although they are very similar in style, they are NOT from any of my exams. They are 100% original, hand made by me :) Hope they help.

Here are couple of them...you can leave your answers in the comment section. I will post rationales and reference for them soon. Please let me know if this is something that will help so I don't waste anyone time with these :) Thanks!


A patient accidently receives spinal dose Bupivacaine intravascularly. What would be the first symptom? 

a)      Ventricular Fibrillation

b)      Circumoral numbness

c)       Seizures

d)      A flutter

A patient is being prepped for spinal anesthesia in sitting position. Which of the following steps is inaccurate? 

a)      Vitals are assessed supine and sitting position

b)      The intercristal line identified on iliac crest for needle insertion at L3-L4.

c)       Betadine is applied to site and left on for 1 minute

d)      Clean the iodine solution with alcohol before inserting needle. 

Break Time!

Done with quarter 2 and am already enjoying my two weeks break! 1st day off was watching "immortals" with friend and day 2 was shooting all kinds of guns in the open Arizona desert. Now I feel like its time to catch up on all the stuff that I crammed during finals. The stuff that I probably should know. First quarter was supposed to be the hardest but I think 2nd quarter proved that wrong by far.
Had only two test for Principles of Anesthesia and Pharm besides the fact that 80% or more was needed to pass!! Insanity!
But its over and here are some things that helped me survive second quarter.
1) Don't fall behind
Lacking sleep and motivation along with a busy schedule it is very easy to fall behind but one must keep along (I highly doubt there is any way to stay ahead). During orientation, my instructors suggested keeping up with every assigned reading before class and revisit it little by little everyday. I really couldn't last quarter but it definitely would have helped my grades if I did. So, new plans for next quarter. Start early, keep on time and don't procrastinate.

2) Keep distractions away!
When we have to do things that aren't always fun such as studying, it is easy to get distracted by things that wouldn't normally attract you. For example, being on facebook, twitter every 5 minutes, watching stupid videos on youtube etc. Those were huge distractors for me last quarter and surprisingly, I don't care for them much during break! Solution: So, it was finals week and I had three test in 4 days and I couldn't focus, so I decided to block myself from internet for an hour at a time with 10 minute breaks using a google chrome app called "Strict Pomodoro". Worked wonders! P.S. You can figure a way around anything but then you be cheating yourself.

3) Take Breaks
Don't over do it. Be sure to give yourself a set time of break every so often. It makes studying less draining.

Wish you good luck!

Quarter 1 is done!! - Anatomy Debriefing.

First quarter is over!! Its been a rough, yet fun, 10 weeks. First Anatomy, then biophysics and finally biochemistry. All are over!
But my brain still feels like its in high gear. I have only been out for a day and am bored. So, I went to school today again (just to discuss my finances actually...which by the way are outrageous!). Met a professor from next quarter on my way to lab. Got some motivation and tips which revved up my brain even more. I think I have forgotten how to relax anymore and 10 days are going to too long of a break.

So, I thought in this time, I can share some experiences about classes, books I used etc.

Anatomy...was a monster. So so much information and so little time. Never thought it would be this detailed. There wasn't even time to memorize mnemonics anymore. But, its possible. Because, if I can do it, anyone can do it...if you put enough time in it. Lab was most important but was more efficient if you know theory really well. I was told to preview theory before class, pay attention during class and then review it after class. It worked for first two weeks may be then my mind just went "Screw it" and couldn't keep up anymore. Sleep was short and so was my frustration index and that's when you go to meet your instructors. Honestly, I really liked my anatomy instructors who made this course a lot easier than I thought. That makes a huge difference. Another thing that I felt really helped me was recording lectures. There is so much that is thrown at you that its easy to miss it (and for days that you can't stay awake in class).
As far as the books, I was told to buy three and I bought em all. Some of them were greatly useful and some were unnecessary expenses. Netter, which is a great colored atlas is one of my favorite. It shows different relationships mentioned in lectures and has a nice index making it easier to look through. The only thing I didn't like was that its not the real stuff. Sometimes I couldn't translate drawings into real cadavers. But, still this book is definitely needed and I am for sure keeping mine.

Rohen was another atlas that I used and was on my recommended books list. It does have real cadaveric pictures and was a great tool to study from right before test. The thing I didn't like about this book was its index. It is so hard to find stuff in it and being my "frustration index" was so low, it did piss me off a few times.
Overall, its a decent book to look through. Thumbs up for this one too.

I didn't really use dissectors before lab but was told by people who did that it really helped them understand muscle relationship better. So, you might want to give it a shot!

The Anatomy concepts book was really a waste of money. Never really used it. For you it may be different if professors aren't doing a good job filling their lectures. If I knew, probably wouldn't have bought this one.

I have links for all the books for amazon if you need to buy them. Hope this helped!

   

   

First Week of CRNA School

Study Study Study...my brain is exhausted and its only been one week. What a week it was! "You will be slammed with stuff and be ready to catch it as it goes over your head", I laughed when the Anatomy professor said that. But man was he right! If you have heard that CRNA school becomes your life, believe it. My schedule for this past week has been school, eat and sleep. I leave for school at 6:30 am and usually come home around 7pm (not to relax, just to continue all at home) and not reviewing stuff but just trying to catch up. Remember when you are having a busy day at work and you have so much to do that you for once wish time goes just a little slower. I have felt that everyday this past week. Anatomy is straightforward but it doesn't take too long for the Latin words to mix in. Biochem is another major stressor that never leaves your head while you trying to catch on anatomy. Biophysics is ok so far as long as your math is up to mark. I have been greatly motivated to try to keep up with my routine of going to school early and figuring out things for the this week before the next load hits...well...these are all the negative in short.
Although its too early to figure out, I did notice already that poor planning and flustered process of studying will definitely eliminate you in this game...and that too in the first stage. Organization of time, choosing your study partners carefully and sacrificing things you used to love is crucial. I was told to forget being an ICU nurse and NOT use techniques that I used in nursing school to pass like memorizing etc. You ll HAVE to know the muscles, nerves and vessels as it will be the bases of everything anesthesia. And that too not just from books but more so from being in the lab. At least 2-3 hours outside assigned lab per week (thats minimum. I did approx, 10 hours extra so far during the last week.)
Don't worry about what other people think and change your plan just to make them feel better or be nice. You can still tell em that you want to follow a certain plan without being harsh. Then once you are comfortable with the subject, teach em. Make flash cards for anatomy, writing em, reading em back to you and reciting them is greatly helpful as well.

I have a lot more to say but my brain is fried and have to continue my fight against tackling latin and chemical reactions. Hopefully will have things arranged better next week. So far, its day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.