The Plastic Surgical Nurses Certification Board (PSNCB) continues to work our way through the accreditation process. I am amazed by how many steps it takes to complete this. At this juncture we are approximately 1.5 years away from submitting the application. We were a little disappointed to learn we had another round of item writing to do for the CPSN examination before the application submission.
Based on the results from the survey last summer, it was necessary to change our blueprint for the CPSN examination. The data collected have prompted us to change the weight of each category for testing. The examination must correlate to that blueprint which necessitates an item-writing session for the new examination. The new blueprint will be posted on CNET's site as well as the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses (ASPSN) by the end of this week. This new blueprint will not take effect until spring of 2017. The certified aesthetic nurse specialist (CANS) examination will have an item-writing session this spring 2016. This is the first session writing for the CANS. You will see the new CANS examination in September 2016. It is a fascinating but daunting task. Thankfully, we are well advised by CNET, our testing site, as to the proper sequence of events. They have given us a timeline with the additional step and feel we are on target for application submission to ABSNC in fall 2017.
Along with the blueprint and examination writing process, we are reviewing the ABSNC Accreditation Standards and gathering the documentation we need to supply for each standard. If you are interested in reading these standards, I think it will clarify why we have been so critical of the content required for recertification. The standards continually emphasize that this is a specialty certification and is distinct from other nursing specialties. Thus, you must possess knowledge that is unique from basic nursing.
The other outstanding issue is the need for trademarking. We will need to have that process completed before submission of the application so this is an additional expense for legal fees to complete this process. We are currently getting quotes for this. This was not in our budget for 2016 so we will have to adjust for this.
I hope you find this information helpful to understand what a huge undertaking this is for our organization. It is an abundant amount of work for PRRI as they put together all of our information for this application. The end product will be well worth everyone's efforts. We will have much to be proud of when the CPSN and CANS are recognized by the ABSNC. I encourage you to reach out to your colleagues and have them start the process for their certification!
Respectfully,
Jacqueline Frazee, BSN, CNOR, RNFA, CPSN
President, PSNCB