By: American Nurses Association

ANCC Success Pays^®: Add Value with Certification

Certification is the nursing profession’s official recognition of achievement, expertise, and clinical judgment. It is a mark of excellence that requires continued learning and skill development to maintain. For nurses, the benefits of certification are clear: professional recognition and credibility, professional achievement, personal accomplishment, and more. But did you know that certification can benefit your health care organization, too?

In an increasingly complex environment, promoting certification as a key component of your culture is a powerful way to add value and improve outcomes.

Here’s how it can make a difference:

• Quality. Certification is an indicator of quality that attracts patients. Encouraging your nurses to earn certification tells your patients and the community that you hold your staff to the highest professional standards. Patients will seek you out and feel more confident knowing they are in certified hands.
• Confidence. When nurses are certified, you can easily and confidently rely on their ability to meet industry benchmarks, and produce work of a higher and more consistent quality. In addition, you can be confident that your nurse leaders are experts in their specialties and set the standard for quality in clinical practice and patient outcomes.
• Marketing. Certification may provide a marketing advantage in a competitive health care environment. Certified nurses are more likely to be active in their professional associations, write articles for leading journals, and give speeches and conference presentations. This exposure reflects positively on your organization and offers free media opportunities.
• ROI: Certification brings a return on investment for things you’re already doing, such as professional development activities and continuing education. Why not reap the rewards?
• Retention. Nurses want to work for organizations that are invested in their professional development. Supporting certification reduces one of your biggest expenses: staff turnover.
• Risk Reduction. When all nurses in your organization are certified, they have demonstrated competence in their specialty areas, which contributes to safer patient care.
• Mark of Excellence. For health care organizations seeking American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition^® or Pathway to Excellence® designation, certification helps meet eligibility standards.
• Outcomes. Most importantly, certification contributes to better patient care. A growing body of research indicates a link between certification and nurse knowledge, techniques, and judgment that affect patient safety and outcomes.

Why ANCC?

As the world’s leading nurse credentialing organization, ANCC offers more certifications than any other credentialing body. We are the only organization to offer RN, APRN, and interprofessional health care certification in emerging specialties. Our certification programs are developed to meet exacting accreditation standards from organizations such as the National Commission for Certifying Agencies and the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification. In addition, we are the first and only nurse credentialing organization in the world to attain full International Organization for Standardization certification, which means our credentialing programs meet rigorous quality management principles.

Certify more nurses with no financial risk

Now you can help your nurses achieve certification, reduce test-taking anxiety, and eliminate financial barriers with ANCC’s Success Pays^® program.

Here’s how it works: your hospital contracts to provide a minimum 20 eligible nurses to pursue certification. Smaller organizations may be accommodated to fit within the program as well. Nurses are given two opportunities to pass the exam. You pay only for those who pass. Your organization increases its number of board-certified nurses, with no financial risk. Learn more about Success Pays, here.

Hospitals and health care organizations that promote and support nurse certification seek tangible results that contribute to their success. Whether quantitative in terms of money saved in recruitment and turnover, or qualitative as nurses gain new patient care competencies, investing in nurse certification makes sense for your bottom line.

Categories: Team Development

Tags: Certification / Cert Prep