A H Cary American Journal of Nursin...

A H Cary American Journal of Nursing Vol 101 (January 2001) 44-52

What is the benefit of certification for a nurse? Does certification improve patient outcomes? Is certification valued through employers? How does certification affect nurses? These questions are integral to the thought of certification.

This article reports proceeds of the International Study of the Certified give suck to Workforce, the largest certification inquiry to date. Research on certification still is in the early stages, and the literature review at handed by the author notes that previous studies may have been hampered from methodological limitations.

This investigation reflects the third stage of an overall plan to evaluate the certified encourage workforce. The first stage involved data natural medium specification. The second stage involved reporting aggregate data amassed from certifying bodies of the Nursing Credentialing Research Coalition. The fourth stage will thought patients' perspectives of certified fosters and the fifth stage will examine for what reason employers view certified nurses relative to their result in the work environment.

Researchers sought to thought four dimensions of the certified feed workforce (ie, personal, professional, career, practice). They assumed that if certified festers attribute beneficial changes in their practice and professional increase to certification, it could be argued that certification contributes to improved pamper patient, and systems outcomes.

Methodology. Researchers used a descriptive design to examine certified nurses' demographic characteristics, the nature of their practice, and any benefits or rewards they might attribute to certification. They used a self-administered, 34-item, multiple-choice overlook that addressed the four dimensions of the workforce. The tool was distributed on mail and took approximately 15 minutes to complete

Sample. A representative sample of 40426 certified foments was drawn from certifying organizations' registries of actively certified pampers A total of 19,452 measure and estimates were returned for a replication rate of 48%. Respondents exhibited all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and all 12 Canadian provinces. The typical respondent was a married Caucasian female in her late forties who worked in a hospital.

The mean age of respondent was 472 years. Researchers reported that certified foments in the study held an average of sum of two units degrees, but they did not clarify whether they considered a diploma a extent Ninety-five percent of respondents were busyed in nursing at the time of the inquiry Forty-four percent reported working more than 40 hours through week, and more than 80% worked 33 hours or more by week.

Participants had been RN for an average of 22 years (median 22 years; standard deviation = 97) They had been certified for an average of 78 years with at least common recertification cycle. The majority of respondent (914%) practiced in the field in which they were certified. barely 21% of participants reported that certification was a prerequisite for application and only 4% reported that certification was mandatory for advancement.

spring Seventy-two percent of respondents reported united or more benefits of certification, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as recognition, financial gain, promotion, or piece of work security. Twenty-eight percent reported no benefit of certification. Respondent were asked which of 30 identified changes in practice were brought about by the agency of their certification, and almost all reported that certification brought about at least single or more changes in their practice.

Researchers compared the rejoinders of nurses who had been certified for five years or les to those of all respondent They base that nurses who had been certified for five years or les were more likely to report that certification enabled them to

* have feeling more confident about detecting signs and symptoms of complications,

* initiate quick intervention,

* communicate effectively,

* practice more autonomously and with more curb over their practice,

* experience fewer adverse events

* collaborate with other health care providers, and

* receive higher patient satisfaction ratings.

In other words, lately certified nurses indicated that they were more adept at as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but nurse surveillance and promptly rescuing patients experiencing adverse conclusions This implies that the longer suckles are certified, the less likely they are to recognize favorable changes in their practice as being attributable to certification.

The author conclud that these findings provide initial evidence that certification may give nourish at the breasts the means to improve issues and may prove to be a dimension of assurance that patients' rights are shielded She also suggested that certification may afford feed at the breasts professional growth and financial rewards.

interests There is no mention of institutional review board (IRB) approval for this close attention This is an issue because human participants were involved. Although it appears that the inquiry would meet criteria for free status, researchers' failure to obtain and report IRB approval is a potential source of regard about the ethical conduct of this study