Surgical Nursing Certification
Medical-surgical nurses promote health and provide care to patients with medical and surgical diagnoses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The American Nurses Credentialing Center offers a certification for registered nurses interested in specializing in surgery. Those who complete the eligibility requirements and pass an examination for the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification are awarded the Registered Nurse-Board Certified credential, or RN-BC.
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Eligibility
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To be eligible for the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification, you must have a current license as a registered nurse. You also must minimally have two years of experience working as a registered nurse; 2,000 hours of that work experience must be in medical-surgical nursing. Lastly, you are required to complete 30 hours of medical-surgical nursing continuing education credits. Your experience and education requirements should be completed within three years of your application for the certification, according to the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Examination
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To receive the RN-BC designation, you must pass an exam. As of May 2010, the exam contained 175 questions covering 10 main practice domains. These domains are: development; communication; basic and applied science; behavioral science; patient/family education; delivery of care; nursing process; health promotion and wellness; management/leadership; and legal and ethical issues. The most covered domains are delivery of care and nursing process, according to the ANCC. Together, questions in these two areas accounted for approximately 30 percent of the test.
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Certification Renewal
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Every five years, you must apply to renew your certification to continue using it. You can meet the renewal requirements two ways. For both routes, you must still have an RN license, pay a renewal fee and complete continuing education credits, according to the ANCC. In addition, you must have 1,000 hours of experience in medical-surgical nursing for the first route. If you don't have enough work hours, you may pass the certification exam again to renew your certification.
Fees
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The fees associated with applying for and maintaining the RN-BC credential are based on your membership status to the American Nurses Association. For ANA members, the initial certification fee was $270 and the renewal fee was $200, as of May 2010. For non-members, the initial certification fee was $390 and renewal of certification cost $350 in May 2010.
Salary Potential
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The fees for the RN-BC designation may seem nominal in comparison to your salary potential with the credential. Those with the RN-BC credential and one to four years of experience have a median salary of $70,000, according to the PayScale website. The median salary for those with five to nine years of experience increases to $73,700. The most experienced, with 20-plus years, have some of the highest salaries. They report a median of $75,500 as of May 2010.
Alternative Option
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The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses also offers a certification for nurses who want to specialize in medical-surgical nursing. It is very similar to the ANCC's credential, but for eligibility you are not required to have any continuing education or contact hours in medical-surgical nursing. Also, you only need 90 contact hours for recertification versus 150 contact hours for the RN-BC. Costs of the credential are somewhat less than the RN-BC.
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- Photo Credit operation nurse image by Andrey Rakhmatullin from Fotolia.com
