By Kellie Anderson
Kellie Anderson
What is the value of holding a certification? Some choose to get certified in a specific role due to legal necessity, billing-related insurance requirements, as a part of their career development plan, and even for their own personal satisfaction.
For health care practitioners, private certifications are voluntary, but in some cases are preferred or required to perform certain services by insurance companies because they indicate a commitment to patient care and safety. So, what exactly does “certification” mean? Certification is a formal process by which a certifying agency validates knowledge, abilities and skills in a defined role or practice. Certification organizations which hold accreditation status, as the Competency and Credentialing Institute (CCI) does, are held to processes that have a rich history of synthesized, legally defensible, best practices in the assessment industry.
CCI has been the leader in perioperative nursing certification for over 40 years. We offer early and mid-career certification options, depending on your area of expertise. The Certified Ambulatory Surgery Nurse (CNAMB) certification is for nurses specializing in the ambulatory surgery setting. For those in a more traditional operating room setting, there is our Certified Perioperative Nurse (CNOR) credential, our flagship certification program with over 40,000 certificants. Both certifications require a minimum of two-years and 2,400 hours of experience in their respective specialty. For those that hold the Certified Foundation Perioperative Nurse (CFPN) certification, the path to earning either CNOR or CNAMB is slightly different. They still need 2,400 hours of experience, but only need 18 months of experience to meet the minimum requirements.
To earn the CNOR or CNAMB certifications, you must pass a certification examination. CCI offers year-round testing for all examination-based credentials, and examination windows are three months long. For example, if a candidate registers in January, examinations will be delivered starting February 1 through the last day in the month of April. The CNOR and CNAMB examinations contain 200 multiple-choice questions, and the examinee has 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete the examination. Candidates who are successful in passing the multiple-choice examination are awarded their certification, which has specific and important maintenance requirements that they will be responsible for meeting. The CNOR certification has a 5-year recertification requirement, while the CNAMB certification is a shorter 3-year recertification cycle.
We know that you might be thinking about how you will maintain or keep your certification in good standing with your busy schedule. We are here to support you in doing this! The recertification method for each credential is different, but both methods involve using the Professional Activity Points, or “Points Method” for short. CCI has created a way for nurses to earn credit for various activities and job responsibilities to count towards recertification. That’s right, there are free resources available for contact hour courses. There are currently 18 different points-awarding categories to choose from, and we encourage certificants to choose from free activities offered within our learning management system, accessible through the CCI Store.
Here is a broad overview of some of the more commonly reported points categories. Certificants can now claim credit for holding training certificates such as BLS, ACLS, PALS, or NRP, report college credit from a healthcare-based college degree path and earn points for mentoring a colleague in a perioperative nursing role. CCI offers approximately 1,000 points worth of various free and paid activities as well. Some examples include games in the form of healthcare-related crossword puzzles, case study exercises, podcasts and reflection exercises. It is also important to note that contact hour activities still count under the points method, but there is a category maximum.
To learn more about CCI’s credential offerings, visit www.cc-institute.org or contact CCI directly via email at Info@cc-institute.org or by phone at (888) 257-2667 for assistance.
– Kellie Anderson is a credentialing & volunteer specialist at Competency and Credentialing Institute (CCI). She has four years of experience in the credentialing field, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Credentialing Specialist certificate.
