World’s First Burn Nursing Specialty Certification Now Available

World’s First Burn Nursing Specialty Certification Now Available

The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN)  launched the world’s first Certified Burn Registered Nurse (CBRN) burn nursing specialty certification. To earn the CBRN credential, eligible RNs and APRNs must pass a rigorous national exam spanning the burn nursing continuum, including prehospital care and initial management, acute and critical care, post-acute rehabilitation, outpatient and community care, and aftercare and reintegration, as well as injury prevention, education, and psychosocial patient and family support.

“At last, tremendously skilled and compassionate burn nurses worldwide have the opportunity to have their advanced clinical and professional knowledge and expertise validated through board certification,” says CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CENP, CPHQ, FABC. “The best possible thing a burn patient could have is a CBRN-certified nurse taking care of them.”

Nurses play critical roles in every aspect of burn care and recovery, and research links burn care specialty expertise to improved outcomes in patients with burn injuries.

In a new burn nursing video, burn nurse experts and American Burn Association (ABA) leadership comment on the development and future impact of BCEN’s CBRN certification program.

Burn injuries significantly cause disability and death, affecting all ages.

  • In the U.S., over 400,000 seek medical treatment for burn injuries annually, with 40,000 hospitalizations, including 30,000 at hospital burn centers, and over 3,800 deaths.
  • Worldwide, there are approximately 11 million burn cases and 180,000 deaths annually.
  • Learn more about burn injuries, care, and burn nursing in Burn Nursing Excellence: The CBRN.

Eligible nurses with a U.S. RN or APRN, or equivalent, may apply to sit for the CBRN exam here. Nurses educated or licensed outside the U.S., Canada, or Australia must first go through BCEN’s international credential evaluation process. BCEN offers exam discounts to ABA members, U.S. military active-duty service members, reservists, and veterans. Volume discounts are available through the BCEN Voucher Program. A CBRN practice exam and interactive burn nursing CE courses are available on the award-winning BCEN Learn professional development platform.

BCEN’s Critical Care Ground Transport Nursing Certification Earns Accreditation 

BCEN’s Critical Care Ground Transport Nursing Certification Earns Accreditation 

The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing’s (BCEN)  Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN) national board certification program for critical care ground transport nurses is now accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC). Accreditation by ABSNC means that the CTRN certification program has met or exceeds the nursing certification industry’s most rigorous standards based on an independent, peer-reviewed process.

RNs significantly deliver crucial and often life-preserving or life-saving care to critically ill or injured patients in the dynamic, autonomous, high-stakes ground transport environment. To earn the CTRN credential, nurses must demonstrate mastery of advanced ground transport nursing-specific clinical knowledge and safety, survival, disaster preparedness, scene operations management, communications, and equipment and vehicle knowledge.

“Excellence in ground transport nursing is crucial to the public emergency response and successful interfacility transfers of critically ill and injured patients,” says BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CPHQ, CENP, FABC. “ABSNC accreditation of the CTRN ground transport specialty certification is an important signal to nurses, healthcare teams, institutions, and patients and their families alike.”

bcen-critical-care-ground-transport-nursing-certification-earns-accreditation

CTRN Now Accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification

The CTRN is BCEN’s fastest-growing certification program, increasing by 19% in 2020, 29% in 2021, and 24% in 2022 as well as in 2023 year-to-date. According to a peer-reviewed January/February 2023 Air Medical Journal article, the top three perceived benefits of holding the CTRN are critical thinking in the ground transport environment (88%), confidence as a ground transport nurse (88%), and a sense of accomplishment and pride (95%). Over half (51%) of survey respondents reported doing more ground transports since the start of the pandemic, and nearly two-thirds (62%) said being a CTRN “contributed to their ability to deliver the best possible care” to patients with COVID-19.

“To earn initial accreditation, a certification body must provide detailed data that demonstrates a particular certification program adheres to ABSNC’s 18 accreditation standards, including organizational autonomy, basis in a body of research-based knowledge, nondiscrimination, test development, validity, reliability, test administration, test security, fairness of passing score, recertification, and confidentiality,” said BCEN Director of Certification and Accreditation Amy Grand, MSN, RN, ICE-CCP. “We are proud to say that all five of BCEN’s currently available certification programs are now accredited.” BCEN’s new burn nursing credential will launch in Q4 2023.

A few facts about the CTRN:

  • The CTRN has been ANCC Magnet-accepted since 2009.
  • The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) has recognized the CTRN since 2006 and now requires that RNs hold transport-specific credentials.
  • While the number of CTRNs has grown steadily since the credential was introduced in 2006, the number of CTRNs has doubled in just the past three years. Today, over 500 nurses hold the CTRN.

Click here for more information about CTRN and ground transport nursing.

BCEN’s Certified Flight Registered Nurse Credential Turns 30

BCEN’s Certified Flight Registered Nurse Credential Turns 30

The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), the benchmark for certification across the emergency spectrum, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN)  certification program. Held by over 5,800 RNs worldwide, the CFRN is one of the longest-running, most complex, multifaceted national nursing specialty certifications.

CFRN certification independently validates an RN’s mastery of flight nursing clinical knowledge and professional issues as well as safety, survival, disaster preparedness, scene operations management, communications, and equipment and aircraft knowledge—all of which are essential to safe, evidence-based, advanced nursing practice in the highly complex, dynamic and autonomous flight nursing environment.

“Since 1993, the CFRN has stood as the hallmark of exceptional flight nursing patient care and safety,” says BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CENP, CPHQ, FABC. “BCEN salutes the thousands of CFRN-certified RNs, past and present, for their commitment to their patients, flight nursing excellence, and advancing flight care worldwide.”

CFRN-30-Year-Pin

CFRN 30-Year Pin

Flight nurses and their partners, often paramedics, are the air medical clinical duo who provide clinical care for critically ill and injured patients during scene responses and interfacility transports.

The top perceived benefits of CFRN certification include flight physiology and flight nursing clinical knowledge, confidence and critical thinking in the flight environment, and a sense of pride and accomplishment, according to The 2022 Certified Flight Registered Nurse Pulse Survey. Nearly 1,000 CFRNs participated in this first value of certification research focused on flight nursing.  

Throughout July, CFRN’s 30th-anniversary celebrations will include the following:

Read more about the history of flight nursing and the CFRN credential in the 30th-anniversary edition of “Excellence in the Air: The CFRN,” from BCEN’s Commitment to Excellence Series. The series chronicles the origin and impacts of BCEN’s emergency, trauma, and transport specialty certifications.

BCEN Names 2023 Distinguished Award Winners

BCEN Names 2023 Distinguished Award Winners

BCEN announces the 2023 winners of the annual national BCEN Distinguished Awards , recognizing one top board-certified RN in emergency, pediatric emergency, trauma, flight, and critical care ground transport nursing specialties.

“The 2023 BCEN Distinguished Award recipients embody the highest levels of clinical excellence in their specialties, and we applaud how they convey the importance of emergency, trauma, and transport nursing specialty certification as they support members of their teams to be the best they can be,” says BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CENP, CPHQ, FABC.

Meet the 2023 BCEN Distinguished Award honorees.

Distinguished CEN Award (adult/mixed emergency): Calee Muldrow, BSN, RN, CEN, Emergency Department RN with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

Muldrow, a Texas ER nurse, was on maternity leave when she got the news that she was named the 2023 Distinguished CEN (Certified Emergency Nurse). There are 40,000+ CENs worldwide, and the CEN is one of the oldest and most widely held national RN specialty certifications.

Distinguished CPEN Award (pediatric emergency): Dawn Tasche, BSN, RN, CPEN, Emergency Department RN with Aurora Health Care in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Tasche, a Wisconsin ED RN specializing in pediatric emergency care whose leadership led her community hospital’s ED to be the first to be recognized as “pediatric emergency care ready” by Wisconsin Emergency Medical Services, in alignment with national pediatric emergency care standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Distinguished TCRN Award (trauma): Jordan Tyczka, MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN, Trauma Program Director at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, Virginia.

Tyczka, a trauma specialty RN/educator who was just promoted to Trauma Program Director at her Virginia hospital and whose innovative continuing education initiatives include an Escape Room for trauma nurses.

Distinguished CFRN Award (flight): Stacey Dock, MSN, RN, CFRN, Flight Nurse/QA Coordinator/ Preceptor at LifeFlight Eagle in Kansas City, Missouri.

Dock, a 29-year flight nurse who earned her CFRN credential in 1995, is one of the most veteran Certified Flight Registered Nurses still flying and a local legend. Her Kansas City-based transport program originated from one of the first civilian air medical transport programs in the U.S.

Distinguished CTRN Award (critical care ground transport): George Olschewski, BSN, RN, CFRN, CTRN, CEN, TCRN, a Critical Care Transport & Mobile Intensive Care Nurse with the Hackensack University Medical Center Specialty Care Transport Unit in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Olschewski is an NJ-based, 20-year critical care transport/mobile intensive care nurse working in one of healthcare’s most high-stakes, autonomous and complex settings where “things can go sideways very quickly” when transporting critically ill and injured patients, sometimes over long distances. Critical care ground transport is so specialized there are only about 500 board-certified ground transport RNs, but the number of CTRNs has grown by ~20% each of the past several years.

Read about each in the 2023 BCEN Distinguished Award Meet the Winner series.

Honorees receive a commemorative Distinguished Award pin and one year of free access to the award-winning BCEN Learn professional development platform (valued at $2,500) to support continuing education in their specialty. They will also be honored at a celebration at their workplace this summer.

Over 50,000 RNs and advanced practice registered nurses in 26 countries hold one or more BCEN nursing specialty credentials as follows: over 40,000 hold the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), over 5,400 hold the Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN), over 7,300 hold the Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN), over 5,700 hold the Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN), and nearly 500 hold the Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN).

BCEN Distinguished Award honorees are selected based on their commitment to clinical excellence and professionalism through specialty certification and their leadership and innovation in supporting board certification for other nurses in their specialty.

National specialty certification independently validates a nurse’s advanced knowledge, clinical judgment, and professionalism across a nursing specialty body of knowledge. Specialty certification is associated with optimal patient outcomes and greater nurse career success and satisfaction.

Nominations for the 2023 BCEN National Certification Champion Awards recognizing organizations committed to specialty nursing excellence are open now. Hospital-based and freestanding emergency departments, trauma centers, health systems, and flight and ground transport programs may apply.

BCEN Celebrates Certified Nurses Day

BCEN Celebrates Certified Nurses Day

In celebration of Certified Nurses Day on March 19, the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) launched a Certified Nurses Day web page with nurse recognition resources plus basic information about specialty certification for patients, families, and healthcare consumers.

The page also features a new YouTube video with interviews with three of the more than 40,000 RNs worldwide who hold the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) credential—one of the oldest and most widely held nursing specialty credentials. The RN share why national specialty certification matters to them and their patients

“As BCEN celebrates the leadership, dedication to excellence, professionalism, and service of board-certified nurses delivering truly exceptional care in every specialty,” says BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CENP, CPHQ, FABC, “we wanted to share why nurses working across the emergency spectrum choose to get board certified.”

Here is what several board-certified emergency, transport, and trauma nurses said about the importance of nursing specialty certification:

“Any specialty certification, by definition, improves patient care. It means you’re an expert who has demonstrated competency and knowledge in your field,” says Jessica Evins, BSN, RN, CPEN, a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN) with New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department in New York City. “While pediatric patients make up a small percentage of the overall Emergency Department population, people underestimate the unique challenges of taking care of kids. Having pediatric emergency specialty knowledge is critical, and being a CPEN is the best way to show families that you are as equipped as possible to care for their kids.”

Education Coordinator and Flight Nurse Caroline Levin, BSN, RN, CEN, CCRN, CFRN, PHRN, a Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) with STAT MedEvac in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, says: “In the dynamic outside-the-hospital environment, being certified in transport nursing means we bring an expertise to patient care that offers an advanced knowledge-informed perspective on diagnosis and treatment to support our patients’ best possible outcomes.”

Lindsay Schoem, BSN, RN, TCRN, a Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN) with Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, Virginia, describes a thank you letter she received from a trauma patient who had learned what the letters T-C-R-N on her name badge meant: “The patient wrote: ‘I just felt so much more comfortable knowing your expertise was in trauma. I just knew I was going to receive the best care.’”

Nick Jazdzewski BSN, RN, CEN, with Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, says: “Quite simply, being a Certified Emergency Nurse makes me a better nurse, and it raises the performance of the team around me. The heightened knowledge I’ve obtained through specialty certification allows me to quickly anticipate changes in patients’ conditions, which means I can intervene sooner, and that gives patients the best chance for positive outcomes.”

Over 50,000 RNs practicing in 26 countries around the world hold one or more of BCEN’s five specialty credentials which independently validate an RN’s mastery of the emergency, pediatric emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, or trauma nursing specialties. There are over 40,000 Certified Emergency Nurses (CENs), 5,400 Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurses (CPENs), 5,600 Certified Flight Registered Nurses (CFRNs), 450 Certified Transport Registered Nurses (CTRNs), and 7,200 Trauma Certified Registered Nurses (TCRNs).