TCRN Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the TCRN 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.
📋 TCRN Exam Format at a Glance
📚 TCRN Topics to Study (22)
✍️ Sample TCRN Questions & Answers
1. Grief following traumatic death of a patient is a normal response for trauma nurses. Which statement about nurse grief is true?
Debriefing, peer support, and rituals of acknowledgment allow nurses to process grief healthily, supporting long-term resilience.
2. Which clinical finding best distinguishes neurogenic shock from hemorrhagic shock in a trauma patient with spinal cord injury?
Neurogenic shock results from loss of sympathetic tone, producing hypotension paired with paradoxical bradycardia and peripheral vasodilation, contrasting with the tachycardia of hemorrhagic shock.
3. Which intervention is the priority when a spinal cord injury patient develops autonomic dysreflexia with BP 220/130 mmHg?
Sitting the patient upright uses gravity to lower BP while rapid identification and removal of the offending stimulus is the definitive treatment.
4. A trauma patient is noted to have cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) draining from the ear. The nurse should:
CSF otorrhea must not be obstructed; the ear should be loosely covered and the provider notified to prevent meningitis risk.
5. Which radiographic sign on chest X-ray suggests traumatic aortic injury?
A widened mediastinum on chest X-ray is a classic early radiographic sign prompting further evaluation for aortic disruption.
6. A trauma patient has breath sounds on the right but gastric sounds audible over the left chest. Which injury does this suggest?
Bowel sounds auscultated in the chest cavity indicate diaphragmatic rupture with herniation of abdominal organs into the thorax.