CELBAN Preparation or English for Nurses?

Dear sirs,

what are better way prepare for CELBAN? should i take English for nurses? how are CELBANPrep different?

please show me best way.

Again and again I am asked the same question. Again and again I have people asking me about how to prepare for the CELBAN.

Yet again and again I hear from nurses about the classes thay have taken at well established organizations. They were told they were CELBAN preparation classes but in all reality they are higher level ESL classes.

For example, often times what is taught is these classes is based on proper English writing:

do not use abbreviations,
ensure your sentence structure is correct with both verbs and nouns.

These are important points when writing an essay or an article, but this is not consistent with medical documentation standards where:

abbreviations are accepted, and
sentences begin with action verbs.

What can you do?

Use critical thinking skills. These skills are vital in Canada. You must be able to do research and to evaluate the value of what you learn. Asking questions is imperitive.

In doing research about English courses for nurses or for CELBAN preparation be thoughtful.

Find out about the CELBAN from www.celban.org. Here you will find out about the tasks for each component. You will learn that you have to write reports, do a patient history, listen to interactions between nurses and patients, and read medical documents.
Ask questions. Find out about the course and what is taught. Do they teach higher level ESL or do they teach exam taking strategies? For instance, ask if they teach about nursing documentation. What are the expected outcomes of the class? If they say anything about raising your CLB know it is an ESL class.
Talk to your friends who have taken the class.
Evaluate the answers.

I recently spoke with several nurses that took CELBAN preparation classes at local colleges, after they failed the exam. When I asked about what they learned in the class I understood why. Simply stated, the classes did not preparing them for the exam, if they did CELBANPrep would not exist.