Becoming a Nurse – How to Get a Certification

If you are taking your nursing career seriously, you’ve most likely already considered obtaining a certification. While you know that attaining certification can improve your salary and career prospects, perhaps you’ve rejected the idea of pursuing certification because you think it’s too expensive, too difficult, or won’t make enough of a difference to you. Think again—getting your certification may be easier and more affordable than you think, and the benefits by far outweigh the difficulties!

Getting Your Certification

As a dedicated nurse working in modern health care, you can expect to encounter rigorous practice and education requirements on your path to certification. You’ll need to successfully pass a national examination that reflects role objectives in your specialty. However, before you can qualify to sit for the examination, you’ll need to make sure you have attained any pre-requisites. The good news is that you may already have many of the pre-requisites. Typically, pre-requisites for certification may include any or all of the following:

• A specific amount of clinical experience in the nursing specialty for which you want to become certified;
• An educational degree (depending on the area being tested, this can range from a high school degree to an advanced degree like a BSN or MSN);

• Continuing education in your specialty, including classroom instruction and supervised clinical practice;

Your first step isto find out what’s required for the specific certification you wish to attain. Then, figure out what, if anything, you still need to complete before applying for the certification.

Employer Incentives

Many employers offer an incentive for certification, especially if they require certification as part of your employment agreement. In 2003, the American Board of Nursing Specialties surveyed a group of nurse managers regarding nursing certification. Most of the respondents said that theirfacility did offer an incentive for certification, ranging from reimbursement for the examination fees to guaranteed promotions and pay raises. Ask your employer about incentives for achieving certification. If your employer doesn’t currently have a formal incentive plan, you may be able to persuade them to create one by explaining that your certification will benefit the organization.

For example, health care consumers may not understand the ins-and-outs of certification, but they do usually know that certified nurses have met specialized clinical practice and educational requirements. Patients respect organizations that hire certified specialists and are more likely to trust the information they are given. By proactively seeking certification and inviting your employer to support you, you demonstrate commitment to your career development and dedication to improved patient care.

Online Educational Programs

If you’re concerned that you don’t yet meet the educational requirements for certification, you’re not alone. Thousands of working nurses find that they don’t have the time or schedule flexibility to attend classes in a traditional brick-and-mortar institution. Fortunately, the solution is just a click away. Online learning has advanced in leaps and bounds since its inception in the late 1980s, and nursing programs are at the leading edge of online education today. Whether you’re an LPN who needs an RN degree so that you can apply for your Pediatric Nursing Certification, or an acute care nurse who needs to complete your MSN to apply for Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Certification, there are dozens of excellent programs geared specifically towards you.

Before choosing a program, make sure that the program will quality you for the certification needed. If cost is an issue, you’ll be glad to know that most online programs are more affordable than traditional programs, and are held to the same rigorous quality standards. In addition, you can apply for financial aid or look into employer sponsorship.

Immediate Benefits

Are you still wondering whether certification is worth it?Of all the surveys conducted these past few years, including a few performed by the well-known and respected NCRC, results show a lot more benefits and advantages to having a nursing certification, bothfor their patients and for their employers. The biggest benefits included expanded career and salary options, with 11% of certified nurses reporting related career advancements and 19% percent reporting related salary increases.

Nearly all nurses agreed that their confidence and self-esteem improved not just after certification, but while they were studying to qualify for the examination. A 1997 editorial in the AORN Journal quotes a student as saying, “Returning to school has increased my self-confidence.” Another nursing student said that they relished the challenge of keeping up with younger students, “I am enjoying the intellectual ‘rush’ that comes from mastering new clinical skills and relearning material that I studied years ago.”

Hopefully, you now understand that certification is well within your reach. Whether your next step is to apply for a degree program at an accredited institution or to have a chat with your employer about reimbursing your examination fee, you are now in control of your path to certification.