BCEN-CBRN Exam Information and Outline
Certified Burn Registered Nurse
BCEN-CBRN Exam Syllabus & Study Guide
Before you start practicing with our exam simulator, it is essential to understand the official BCEN-CBRN exam objectives. This course outline serves as your roadmap, breaking down exactly which technical domains and skills will be tested. By reviewing the syllabus, you can identify your strengths and focus your study time on the areas where you need the most improvement.
The information below reflects the latest 2026 course contents as defined by BCEN. We provide this detailed breakdown to help you align your preparation with the actual exam format, ensuring there are no surprises on test day. Use this outline as a checklist to track your progress as you move through our practice question banks.
Below are complete topics detail with latest syllabus and course outline, that will help you good knowledge about exam objectives and topics that you have to prepare. These contents are covered in questions and answers pool of exam.
Exam Code: BCEN CBRN
Exam Name: Certified Burn Registered Nurse
Number of Questions: 175 (150 scored- 25 unscored pretest items).
Time Allotted: 3 hours.
Passing Marks: 114-115 correct out of 150 scored items (76%)
- Pathophysiology
- Etiology of burn injury (e.g.- thermal- electrical- chemical)
- Local response: Zones of injury
- Systemic response
- Burn shock
- Inflammatory response
- Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS)
- Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS)
- Metabolic response
- Physiology of wound healing: Phases of wound healing (e.g.- all phasesto include scar maturation)
- Inhalation injury
- Injury types (e.g.- systemic poisons- upper airway- lower airway)
- Etiology
- Clinical Practice: Initial Management (<72 hours)
- Prehospital care
- Primary and Secondary Assessment
- ABA transfer criteria
- Resuscitation management
- Burn size calculation (%TBSA)
- Resuscitation Formulas
- Fluid resuscitation and titration
- Patient response goals (e.g.- urine output)
- Patient with inhalation injury
- Stabilization
- Hemodynamic stabilization
- Thermoregulation
- Oxygenation
- Secondary complications
- Over-and-under resuscitation
- Compartment syndromes
- Dysrhythmias
- Hemodynamic instability
- Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
- Mechanism of injury
- Cutaneous
- Scald
- Chemical
- Electrical
- Thermal
- Non-Cutaneous: Inhalation injury
- Concomitant trauma
- Clinical Practice: Acute Care
- Systems assessment and management
- Neurological
- HEENT
- Respiratory
- Cardiovascular
- Gastrointestinal
- Genitourinary
- Musculoskeletal
- Integumentary
- Infection control
- Sepsis
- Localized infection
- Infection prevention
- Nutrition management
- Hypermetabolism
- Role of dietician
- Enteral nutrition
- Parenteral nutrition
- Supplements
- Glycemic control
- Rehabilitation
- Role of burn therapist (e.g.- PT- OT child life and speech)
- Scar and contracture prevention
- Clinical Practice: Assessment- Treatment- and Evaluation of PainAgitation Delirium (PAD)
- Pain
- Acute
- Chronic
- Neuropathic
- Agitation and Anxiety
- Delirium
- Pruritis
- Acute
- Chronic
- Clinical Practice: Wound Management
- Wound depth assessment (e.g.- partial vs full thickness)
- Care of the burn wound
- Prevention of infections
- Local wound care
- Debridement (e.g.- mechanical and chemical)
- Patient education (e.g.- expected healing time)
- Non-surgical approaches
- Topicals (e.g.- ointments- creams- solutions)
- Dressings (e.g.- non-adherent- silver- negative pressure)
- Surgical approaches
- Excision techniques (e.g.- depth of excision)
- Use of allograft
- Use of xenograft
- Use of autograft (e.g.- FTSG vs STSG)
- Autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS)
- Cultured epidermal autografts (CEA)
- Nursing considerations of the surgical patient
- Pre-operative
- Operative
- Post-operative (e.g.- management of donor site- surgical site)
- Skin/Dermal substitutes
- Biodegradable temporizing matrix (e.g.- Integra®- NovoSorb®BTM)
- Contracture/scar prevention
- Positioning
- Range of motion
- Orthotic management
- Scar massage
- Psychosocial Support and Patient Advocacy
- Associated psychological diagnoses (e.g.- Acute Stress Disorder-depression- PTSD)
- Other social emotional considerations (e.g.- body image- intimacy)
- Community reintegration
- School
- Work/productivity
- Support resources
- Peer to peer support
- Burn camp
- Ambulatory and Reconstruction
- Scar Management
- Types of scar (e.g.- hypertrophic scarring- keloid)
- Non-surgical management (e.g.- garments- massage)
- Surgical management (e.g. laser therapy- tissue rearrangement)
- Patient and family education
- Transition from inpatient to outpatient
- Discharge teaching (e.g.- hospital or ambulatory)
- Home management of chronic conditions and new onsetdisability
- Home wound management
- Home therapeutics (e.g.- sun protection- moisturizer)
- Management of sequalae
- Medication management
- Special Populations
- Pediatrics
- Developmentally appropriate care
- Physiological differences (e.g.- airway)
- Pediatric specific injuries
- Functional impact of scarring
- Older Adults
- Physiological differences
- Impact of comorbidities
- Pregnant patients
- Non-burn skin conditions
- Friction
- Frostbite
- Necrotizing Fasciitis
- Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TENS) / Stevens-Johnson Syndrome(SJS) / Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections (NSTI)
- Non-Accidental trauma
- Child Protective Services (CPS)/Adult Protective Services (APS)referrals
- Patterns of injury
- Risk factors
- Substance use disorders
- Professional Practice
- Ethics
- End of life (e.g.- palliative and hospice)
- Goals of care
- Spiritual considerations
- Decisional capacity
- Cultural considerations for treatment
- Quality Improvement and Process Improvement (QI/PI)
- Interprofessional/Multidisciplinary collaboration (e.g.- social worker-case manager- child life- psychologist)
- Diversity- equity- and inclusion
- Self-care and resiliency
- Intraprofessional nursing collaboration and education
- Community outreach education: Home safety (e.g.- hot water heater-carbon monoxide)
- Disaster management
- Mass casualty incidents
- Bed surge capacity
- Triage criteria