NMC Test of Competence — CBT · United Kingdom · Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), United Kingdom
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersSeeing the patient before the numbers
In the exams: NORCET: Mains — nursing practice, case-scenario based (100 questions); NMC Test of Competence — CBT: Part B — Clinical (100 marks, 68% to pass); NMC Test of Competence — OSCE: APIE — assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation (4 linked stations); Japan National Nursing Examination: Foundations of nursing and professional practice (Core across both sections); NMCN Professional Examination: Foundations and fundamentals of nursing (Core paper); Nursing Council of Kenya Licensure Examination: Fundamentals and clinical skills (Core); Saudi Nursing Licensure Examination: Health promotion and community (Core); NMBA Outcomes-Based Assessment: Assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation (The structure of the practical stations)
How our questions for NMC Test of Competence spread across the units of Health Assessment and Physical Examination. Difficulty: 29 easy, 53 medium, 15 hard.
| End-of-manual check | 12 | |
| The Observations, Done Properly | 8 | |
| What Assessment Is For | 6 | |
| Taking a History | 6 | |
| Looking at the Patient | 6 | |
| Assessment in Groups Who Present Differently | 6 | |
| From Assessment to Action | 6 | |
| Assessing Breathing in Detail | 6 | |
| Assessing Circulation in Detail | 6 | |
| Neurological Assessment | 6 | |
| Pain as an Assessment | 6 | |
| Assessing Nutrition, Hydration and Elimination | 6 | |
| Assessment Over Time | 6 | |
| Common Assessment Errors | 6 | |
| Assessment in the OSCE, and in the First Job | 5 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Why does assessment of an acutely unwell patient follow airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure?
D. It is the order in which problems kill
A blocked airway kills faster than a breathing problem, which kills faster than a circulation problem. The sequence addresses the most immediately fatal problem first.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
How do older adults often present with serious illness?
A. With confusion or a fall
Older people frequently present atypically — infection without fever, heart attack without pain, and illness as confusion or a fall.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
Who can help assess a patient who cannot give a history?
C. Family and carers who know their normal
When the patient cannot speak for themselves, those who know their normal provide essential collateral history.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
Why does it matter whether a patient can clear their own sputum?
D. A patient who cannot clear secretions is at risk of airway problems
A patient unable to clear secretions may need physiotherapy, positioning or suction, and is at risk of collapse and infection.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
Pain has no machine. What does that make it?
D. The observation most open to assumption
Without an instrument, pain depends on the patient's report and the nurse's attention, which makes it vulnerable to assumption and bias.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
What should set how often a patient is reassessed?
C. How unwell they are and how fast they are changing
Frequency follows severity and rate of change, not the convenience of the round.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
In an assessment station, what does finishing properly include?
A. Stating findings, their meaning and what you would do next
Stations are lost in the last seconds; finishing means summarising findings, interpreting them, stating next actions and making the patient comfortable.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
Why does following a fixed assessment structure help under observation?
C. It gives something to fall back on when nerves strike
Nerves impair improvisation; a practised structure keeps the assessment complete.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
What is lost by assessing a patient from the end of the bed?
D. Skin temperature, pulse character and calf tenderness
Many signs require touch or uncovering the patient; end-of-bed assessment misses them.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
On a busy ward several staff see a patient and nobody checks the wound. What error is this?
D. Assuming somebody else has already looked
Shared care creates gaps where each person assumes another checked. Explicit ownership closes them.
Further reading: Laisha original question, written to the SUNYRA nursing manual: Health Assessment and Physical Examination
Ten here, 97 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to NMC Test of Competence in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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