Specialty certification in nursing

As Bonsall (2012) points out, The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has defined specialty certification as “a process by which a nongovernmental agency validates, based upon predetermined standards, an individual nurse’s qualifications for practice in a defined functional or clinical area of nursing.”  Essentially specialty certification indicates a nurse has competence and advanced knowledge within a specialized field. The Institute of Medicine (2010) has called for nurses to further their education in order to increase their competence levels and obtaining specialty certification is one of the ways in which nurses can do that.
Different types of certifications include Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN), Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN), Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-BC), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Certification is typically good for a number of years, usually 5, and then the nurse must update, which requires additional education (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 2019).
Achieving certification requires taking an exam. So for The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), which are the governing boards that administer tests to nurses seeking certification, the exams are different. The ANCC exam consists of about 175-200 questions and takes around 4 hours to complete; the AANP exam consists of 150 questions and takes around 3 hours to complete (BoardVitals, 2018).
In Palliative Care the certification process is overseen the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). To obtain certification, 45 of palliative care training must be documented: the Palliative Care Courses can satisfy the requirement. One must also obtain 2000 hours in palliative care in under 3 years time (Spiritual Care Association, 2019). In New Jersey, continuing education requirements differ depending on the degree of the nurse: RNs must have 30 contact hours every 2 years; LPNs and APNs are the same, the only difference being in the specific courses required, such as Organ and Tissue Recovery for RNs, or pharmacology for APNs who can prescribe (NetCE, 2019).
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects to have employment growth between 2012 and 2022 for palliative care (Green, 2015). The demand for palliative care is increasing and has risen by more than 7-fold over the past three decades. Moreover, the number of hospice providers offering services has tripled in the same time frame (Green, 2015). The BLS shows that of all industries in the health care sector, palliative care is the fastest growing and is likely to add the most jobs in the coming years (Green, 2015). It is expected that by 2022, there will be:
· 1,800,000 personal care aides
· 1,300,000 home health aides
· A total of more than 1,200,000 job openings in palliative care personal and home health (Green, 2015).
· 700,000 medical secretaries in palliative care
· 275,000 physical therapist in palliative care
· 150,000 occupational therapists in palliative care
· 200,000 healthcare social workers in palliative care
· A total of more than 500,000 job openings in palliative care secretary positions, therapist positions and social worker positions (Green, 2015).
Other positions in palliative care can include dieticians, counselors, financial managers, receptionists and information clerks, human resources specialists, NPs, RNs, and so on.
Clearly hospice is an industry that is growing as it provides end of life care for patients and families; thus, palliative care is a specialization field that would make a lot of sense for nurses to be credentialed in. The industry is growing as the cultural shift continues to take place in that direction, what with an aging population, fewer children in households and thus a dependency of families to look for professional care for their elderly loved ones who have entered into the end of life phase.
For this reason there is likely to be a high future need for nurses with specialized certification in palliative care in the coming years. These services will be in high demand in the field of hospice care and the current workforce is growing, with palliative care aides, both personal and home, offering the highest number of positions that are expected to be open for nurses in the coming years, according to the BLS projections and statistics (Green, 2015).
The number of job openings for RNs and nurse assistants in palliative care is expected to reach 1.5 million over the coming decade, which means there is huge opportunity for nursing careers in this field (Green, 2015). The median salary for RNs in palliative care is $78,000, and $24,000 for nurse assistants; home health aides and personal care aides are both at about $21,000. Physical therapists in palliative care will earn an average salary of $89,000, and social workers in the field will earn about $48,000 (Green, 2015).
Job postings in the New Jersey area do show a high demand for nurses in the palliative care industry:
· An RN home health position in palliative care is available via Interim HealthCare, which has an opportunity for a Registered Nurse (RN) for a day shift position for an adult patient in the Toms River, New Jersey area with an immediate start, in Toms River, NJ. The annual salary for this position is $75,000 or around $35-$40 per hour.
· Another offering can be found at BAYADA Hospice, which is currently seeking an experienced Registered Nurse, RN, for a full-time position for our New Jersey Ocean County Hospice office, located in Toms River, NJ. The salary for this position is about the same--$75,000 per year.
· An after-hours on-call RN with palliative care certification job opening is available at Amedisys hospice, where the nurse will be required to respond to telephone requests for assistance and perform home visits for hospice and palliative care patients and families in their home setting after-hours and on weekends. The same salary is expected at around $75,000.
In conclusion, palliative care is a thriving industry and there are numerous jobs available for RNs who are certified in palliative care. Annual salaries for this position most typically start off around a respectable $75,000. These three postings described above are just a small sample of the many different opportunities available for one who has obtained specialized certification in palliative care. As the BLS shows, the industry is growing and there is a culture shift in families in America to rely upon professional care providers to provide end of life care for loved ones. As the population ages, palliative care services are expected to be in more demand, meaning the field is only going to continue to grow.
References
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. (2019). AANPCB Certification. Retrieved from https://www.aanpcert.org/certs/index
BoardVitals. (2018). ANCC vs. AANP: Which FNP Exam Should I Take? Retrieved from https://www.boardvitals.com/blog/ancc-aanp-fnp-exam/
Bonsall, L. (2012). Specialty certification. Retrieved from https://www.nursingcenter.com/ncblog/march-2012/specialty-certification
Green, K. (2015). Careers in hospice care. Retrieved https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/hospice.htm
Institute of Medicine. (2010). Future of nursing. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/iom-future-of-nursing-report/
NetCE. (2019). New Jersey Advanced Practice Registered Nurses CE Requirements, Accreditations & Approvals. Retrieved from https://www.netce.com/ce-requirements/nurse-practitioner/NJ/
Spiritual Care Association. (2019). Palliative care specialty. Retrieved from https://www.spiritualcareassociation.org/apbcc-hpc.html