March 19 marked Certified Nurses Day across the United States. It's a day people are encouraged to thank and show appreciation to certified nurses for their hard work and dedication. This category of nursing is different from the equally tasking job of a registered nurse.
A certified nurse is one who has decided to become an expert in an area of specialty. This includes areas like medical-surgery, pediatrics, emergency management or gerontology. Certified nurses can also teach and train nursing students.
Thousands of nurses choose to become certified annually and many more renew their certification. Nursing certification is a rigorous process and involves more than a bachelors degree required to become a registered nurse and professional experience. According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center, one must first complete and graduated from an accredited registered nurse program, pass the NCLEX-RN examination, obtain a state license and employment as a registered nurse prior to pursuing additional training or education to be deemed certified.
The career, in addition to several years of professional experience, requires not only academic skills but also a display of leadership abilities. However, due to the extensive education and multiple re-certification exams necessary, schools nationwide are unable to churn out enough certified nurses to meet demand.
"As our population ages and the diversity needs of people increase then you need more people to cover the demand of people who are ill, sick or hospitalized or just need preventative care," said Dr. Terry Ward the director and associate dean of North Carolina A & T University's School of Nursing.
Another problem adding to the shortfall of certified nurses is the lack of certified nurses joining academia to become faculty members at nursing schools.The rigor of certification and the pay disparity between academic practice and clinical practice is often a disincentive for a switch.
In addition, hospitals can only take a limited number of trainee nurse practitioners. What this means is that there are not enough places for practitioners in training to acquire clinical practice requirements for the process of certification or maintaining their status.
Several schools in the Triad, including UNC Greensboro's School of Nursing, have designed their programs to help fill the gap and accelerate the process for nurses aspiring to specialize. They encourage nurses to become certified because it provides more professional opportunities. U-N-C-G offers a number of specialty courses in its graduate program to prepare professional nurses for certification in education and administration including a doctorate degree program.