My heartfelt thanks go to the Board for their support and dedication. The Board members are Darlene Jumpp, secretary/treasurer; Kelly Alcorn, director; Sheri Levin, director; and Jacqueline Frazee, director. I also thank Shay Stephens from the National Office for her guidance.
It has been a year of challenges. I believe we have met most of the challenges and will now take our specialty to a higher level of excellence. Our long-term goal is to achieve accreditation from the American Board of Nursing Specialties (ABNS). The mission of the ABNS is "to promote the value of specialty nursing certification to all stakeholders. Specialty nursing certification is the standard by which the public recognizes quality nursing care." According to the ABNS position statement, "The ABNS Accreditation Council accredits specialty nursing certification examination programs signifying that a certifying organization has demonstrated compliance with rigorous standards for certification. This is a testament to the public about the quality of an individual nurse's certification credential(s). To date, 39 certification examination programs have met the rigorous standards established by the council."
As I said, this is our long-term goal; we must demonstrate compliance to the 19 standards that the ABNS has established. A major step is conducting a role-delineation study. Generally, an outside source is contracted to conduct this study, which takes approximately a year to complete.
Presently there are 335 certified nurses, 24 of those just passed the CPSN examination held in October. Please join me in congratulating each and every one who passed. I would also like to acknowledge those who sat for the examination and did not pass and encourage you to take the examination again. For those of you who have not taken the certification examination, I encourage you to take that step. The eligibility criteria for certification are as follows:
1. Be currently licensed as an RN in the United States, its territories or Canada, and
2. Have a minimum of two (2) years of plastic surgical nursing experience as a registered nurse in a general staff, administrative, teaching, or research capacity within five (5) years prior to application, and
3. Have spent at least fifty percent (50%) of practice hours in plastic surgical nursing during two (2) of the preceding five (5) years.
More information regarding certification and the examination process can be found at the ASPSN Web site under Certification.
The Core Curriculum is now available; it is a wonderful study guide. So order your Core now, start studying, download an application from the Web site at http://www.aspsn.org and apply to take the examination.
Many who have taken the certification examination were able to do so with a grant from Allergan Academy (formerly Inamed Academy). Those grants were made possible by the hard work of Joanne Gladfelter, a past president of ASPSN. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank Joanne for her "behind the scenes" work. Joanne presently is a nurse consultant to Allergan; she is dedicated to the advancement of nurses and nursing education. She has the ear of Allergan and the interest of ASPSN members at heart. Knowing what is involved to become a certified plastic surgery nurse, Joanne has worked with Allergan Academy, who supports nursing education, to establish a scholarship fund for nurses to take the CPSN examination. I am excited and pleased to announce that Allergan Academy will continue to support ASPSN's members' educational endeavors with continued sponsorship of scholarship grants for the CPSN examination.
Please watch for the "CPSN Corner" in your monthly newsletter. You will find information, clarification, and reminders regarding the recertification process.
Sue Kunz, BS, RN, CPSN
President, PSNCB