Pediatric CCRN Exam Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the Pediatric CCRN Exam exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 Pediatric CCRN Exam Exam Format at a Glance
📚 Pediatric CCRN Exam Topics to Study (45)
✍️ Sample Pediatric CCRN Exam Questions & Answers
1. Which tissue is not impacted by leukemia?
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood-forming tissues, primarily originating in the bone marrow. While it can spread and affect organs rich in lymphatic tissue, such as the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes, the kidney is not a primary site of leukemia cell proliferation. Although leukemia can indirectly cause kidney damage through complications like tumor lysis syndrome, the kidney itself is not directly impacted as a tissue where leukemia typically originates or extensively infiltrates.
2. A 7-year-old receives a blood transfusion and develops fever, chills, back pain, and hemoglobinuria within 30 minutes. What type of transfusion reaction is occurring?
Acute hemolytic transfusion reactions present with fever, chills, flank/back pain, and hemoglobinuria due to ABO incompatibility causing intravascular hemolysis.
3. A 4-year-old with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) receives IV fluid resuscitation. Four hours later, the child complains of headache and becomes lethargic. The nurse's priority concern is:
Cerebral edema is the most feared complication of pediatric DKA treatment, presenting with altered mental status hours into fluid resuscitation.
4. What desired outcome is achieved when amrinone lactate (Inocor) is administered?
Amrinone lactate (Inocor) is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor that increases intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) in both cardiac and vascular smooth muscle cells. In the heart, this leads to increased contractility (positive inotropy). In vascular smooth muscle, increased cAMP causes relaxation, resulting in systemic and pulmonary vasodilation, which reduces afterload. This dual action improves cardiac output by both strengthening contractions and reducing the resistance the heart pumps against.
5. A child with a large ventricular septal defect is at greatest risk for developing which complication over time if left unrepaired?
Chronic left-to-right shunting from a large VSD causes pulmonary hypertension; when pulmonary pressure exceeds systemic, Eisenmenger syndrome (reversal of shunt) develops.
6. A child in the PICU has an intracranial pressure (ICP) of 28 mmHg and a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 70 mmHg. What is the cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP)?
CPP = MAP − ICP = 70 − 28 = 42 mmHg; adequate pediatric CPP should be maintained above 40–50 mmHg.