The purpose of this paper was to question the importance ...



[pic]

PROS AND CONS OF NURSING CERTIFICATION

[pic]

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of certification in the nursing profession, present the advantages and the disadvantages of certification, and conclude with some of my personal thoughts on why I feel it is important to become certified in a designated area of expertise.

First, it is important to define the term certification. “Certification is defined as a voluntary process, the purpose of which is to provide professional recognition of knowledge, skills, and clinical practice.” (Byrne, 2004). Second, it is important to understand that “certification denotes a more advanced level of knowledge and practice.” (Byrne, 2004). And, last it is important to convey, “there currently are more than 50 different nursing certification credentials.” (Byrne, 2004).

In reviewing the literature, I found that minimal research has been done and few questions have been raised regarding this issue, which is somewhat disappointing. However, the research that has been conducted place great emphasis on the theory that nurses who were certified displayed better job performance and were more confident in the care they delivered. Emphasis was also placed on the difference in self-esteem, level of clinical competence and the delivery of care between the certified and non-certified nurse. None of the articles had any conclusive evidence to support the theory that a difference in job performance exists, and all made recommendations suggesting that further research be done to support this theory. Due to the lack of research on the topic, it was difficult to find any conclusive evidence that either did or did not support the importance of nurses becoming certified.

The first research article that I reviewed studied “the efficacy of certification in nursing in terms of differences in job performance and self-esteem.” (Redd, 1997). This study “provided data for the phenomenon of job performance and specialty certification, and though not conclusively, it did suggest that nurses with a certification displayed better job performance, professional competence and assurance of better quality care by certified nurses.” (Redd, 1997). The study also provided results suggesting that certified nurse’s performed better than non-certified nurses in areas of teaching, planning and evaluation. Final thoughts of the study “recommended more conclusive in depth research in the areas of performance, certification, and experience in order to accurately determine if a true difference exists in those areas regarding the certified and non-certified nurse.” (Redd, 1997).

The second article also provided information stressing the need for and importance of certification in the nursing profession. This article discussed the “reasons why nurses pursue certification and offered recommendations for the future of certification and nursing. ” (Briggs 2006) . Some reasons that were given for “pursuing a certification were recognition as a clinical expert, personal growth, career advancement, professional satisfaction, validation of nursing knowledge, and salary increases.” (Briggs 2006). The information presented in this article “linked certification and high quality”, and again, the data was not conclusive. The recommendations from this article were to conduct more research confirming that a “link between high quality, safety, and certification.” (Briggs 2006) does exist. Once more conclusive data has been confirmed that a link between quality, safety and certification does exist, and then possibly more effort will be made to support and encourage nurses to become certified.

Although minimal research has been done, overall the data that I found supporting certification was very positive. But again, more evidence is still needed to convince hospitals and hospital administrators that it is important to encourage nurses, recognize and reward nurses to become certified and renew their certification, and also make it a standard for nurses to become certified in their area of expertise

The disadvantages that were listed as barriers to obtaining a certification were related “to cost of the examination, cost of maintaining the credential, lack of institutional support, lack of institution reward, lack of time to prepare for the examination, and lack of access to preparation of material.” (Bryne, 2004). Other reasons nurses chose not recertify were due to letting their certification expire and did so, because “of cost of renewal, lack of recognition, and lack of compensation.” (Bryne, 2004). In all of the articles that I reviewed, the data presented regarding the disadvantages of certification were consistent in providing reasons why nurses chose not to recertify.

I believe that there are many different reasons why nurses choose to become certified or not to become certified. My personal opinion of why nurses choose to become certified is not for money reasons. I strongly believe that nurses choose to become certified because it signifies experience and expertise in a nursing specialty area. I also think that as professionals, nurses become certified for their own personal satisfaction. Unfortunately hospital management, the general public, and even physicians fail to acknowledge nurses for their energy and dedication to the profession and to a specialty. I believe if health care placed more emphasis on the importance of achieving nursing excellence, then maybe nurses would not leave the nursing profession. It would only encourage them to strive to be the best and give the best care possible. Some of the information that was provided in the articles argued the fact that nurses who held a certification provided better care. I personally have to agree with that point of view, because if a nurse is willing to go above and beyond to prepare and study for a test in order to obtain certification, then there is a strong possibility that they value what they do and will provide better care because of it. I also think that nurses, who become certified, tend to be more confident in the care they deliver to their patients.

Last, I would like to share my personal experience of why seeking certification is important. I began my career in the emergency room as a new graduate at Sharon Regional Health System, and at the time all of the nurses who worked in the emergency room were RNs were emergency room nurses. They were the best ER nurses in the Mercer County. They were excellent role models, had many years of experience, and were definitely experts in emergency nursing. Of course, as a new graduate nurse I was amazed and awed by their knowledge and envied the respect they received from the physicians. I wanted to be just like them and after one year of working in the ER, I decided that I wanted to become certified as well. I didn’t do it because of money. I did it for my own personal gratification, and because I wanted to gain more knowledge specific to patients in need of emergent and urgent care. I took the test not once but four times, so again I did not do it for money reasons. I was very proud to hold the title of RN, CEN when I finally passed. If a patient asked what CEN signified, I told them and was proud of it. The disappointing part of the experience was that I let my certification expire, and not because I wanted to, but because four years came and passed before I realized that my certification had expired. Needless to say, I did not and have not renewed my certification. The other disappointment is that the nurses who once worked in the ER have all moved on to other hospitals. They have been replaced by a new generation of ER nurses. Many of them are not certified, which leads me to the reason why I believe that there is a difference in the delivery of care between a nurse who is certified and a nurse who is not. The reasoning behind my belief for this relates to the lack of a sense of pride, dedication, and energy from them when I go back there to work. Most of them give the impression that this is just another job and jobs are easy to find. This is the reality of the nursing shortage. The older generation of certified nurses gave a very different impression of the reality of nursing and again pride, dedication and personal gratification sum it all up. Certification does matter!!

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download