Abstract
As hospitals and healthcare have become specialized, so has nursing. Orthopaedic nurse certification is an example of this specialization. The purpose of this article is to describe the outcomes of one specialty hospital's implemented plan designed to encourage and support nurses seeking to demonstrate expertise in orthopaedic nursing practice. A review course was developed with attention to potential barriers and concerns that were identified in the review of literature. Successful resolution of problems encountered with staff nurses becoming orthopaedic nurse certified are described. Participants in the first 2 sessions passed the examination on the first attempt at a rate of 100% and 88%, which exceeds the national rate of 86.5% (Orthopaedic Nurse Certification Board, 2011, retrieved from http://oncb.org/certification-statistics). Since initiation of the program, the number of "orthopaedic nurse certification" nurses has nearly tripled in this orthopaedic specialty hospital.