My PBDS test
Hello, I just completed a pbds exam. I have 6 years of nursing experience, 3 in a critical setting. I am board certified in my PACU specialty. When I found I was going to take the PBDS exam, I of course went online for more information. I found a dowloadable study exam on this site which did help some, but the majority of the online information pertained to how awful the exam was, how well people did, etc. which did not help much besides making my apprehensions worse. For those with questions about the content, I am going to list what my test was over, because I wish someone had done this for me. I believe I did not do well, mostly because I was ill-prepared about the test format and content. Here goes with what I can remember...

The first 30 mins was over 15 questions which were the 'must, should, could' questions. They were very vague and there really is no way to study for them. The musts are done within 15 mins, the shoulds in 1 hr, and the coulds within your shift. If you list a must you must provide your intervention and rationale. After this section was completed, you could take a break which was not timed.

Next section was 5 videos and you had 50 mins to complete the section. The videos were about 1-2 mins and the timer did NOT stop while viewing them, could only watch once. A paper was provided with very scant information on the patients. They said not to take notes, but they were almost needed to remember the details of the videos. These were the diagnoses for the first 5 videos.
1. Blood transfusion rxn.
2. ARF.
3. MI.
4. ICP
5. Peritonitis

Then a break. I let the time get away from me and had only about 5 mins each for the last 3. Was trying very very hard not to cry in the hallway, knew I had to pull it together!

Third section was another 5 videos.
1. Dig toxicity.
2. PE.
3. DI (vs DKA)
4. Pneumothorax.
5. Postop laryngospasm

That was my test. I wish someone had told me to be very specific. I had no idea something like DI would be on the test! I was taking the 'pacu' test but the only postop patient on the videos was the last one. It seemed very rushed, you watched the video and really had no time to dx before you went into your interventions.
Good luck to yall who are taking the test! If I could offer any advice it would be to take the diagnoses that people have listed on their study guides and write out what you would do and study that. During the exam, list all the interventions first, because the rationales will flow without a problem. You have about 10 mins for each diagnoses but about 2 mins of that is spent on the video, and those 8 minutes go by faster than youd think