Professional Nursing Organization and Certification:
Guidelines
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to investigate a professional nursing organization that offers certification in an area of clinical or nonclinical expertise. You are to select a professional nursing organization and determine if it offers a certification that will be of benefit to you in your current position or a future position to which you aspire. The organization and certification may be in either a clinical or nonclinical area; however, leadership development opportunities are important.
For example, you may aspire to be a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Or, you may be currently interested in becoming a Certified Wound Care Specialist, Emergency Department Nurse or Medical-Surgical Nurse. Other organizations may be considered on a case-by-case basis AFTER approval from your instructor. An example would be if you want to become a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator). This certification is sponsored by the American Association of Diabetes Educators which is not exclusively a nursing organization. Or, becoming certified as an IBCLC may be of interest to RNs working in Mother-Baby Departments and is sponsored by the International Lactation Consultant Association.
The organization MUST offer certification for registered nurses. If you have any questions about whether the organization is a “fit” for this assignment, contact your instructor.
You will complete the form provided in Doc Sharing carefully providing all the information requested.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables you to meet the following course outcome(s).
CO 1: Apply leadership concepts, skills, and decision making in the provision of high quality nursing care, healthcare team management, and the oversight and accountability for care delivery in a variety of settings. (PO #2)
CO 6: Develop a personal awareness of complex organizational systems and integrate values and beliefs with organizational mission. (PO #7)
CO 8: Apply concepts of quality and safety using structure, process, and outcome measures to identify clinical questions as the beginning process of changing current practice. (PO #8)
Points
This assignment is worth a total of 225 points.
Due Date
The Professional Nursing Organization and Certification assignment is due at the end of Week 2. Submit the completed assignment (form) to Professional Nursing Organization and Certification in the Dropbox by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. MT. Consult the course policies, under the Course Home tab, for details regarding late assignments. Post questions about this assignment in the weekly Q & A Forum or e-mail your instructor directly.
Directions
1. Review the following (or similar) website and selects a professional nursing organization offering a certification of interest to you in your current position or one to which you aspire. www.nurse.org/orgs.shtml 2. Thoughtfully and completely answer the questions on the form. 3. Submit the form with your answers to the Dropbox by 11:59 p.m. (MT) on Sunday of Week 2. 4. Review the section on Academic Honesty found in Chamberlain Course Policies. All work must be original (in your own words). 5. BTLS, ACLS, ATLS, NALS, PALS and other similar certifications do NOT qualify for this assignment. Again, if you have any questions about the organization or the certification, contact your instructor for clarification. 6. All work must be original (in your own words). Simply copying and pasting information from the website is not sufficient to address the criteria, and may be viewed as a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy.

Grading Criteria Category | Points | % | Description | Description of professional organization | 40 | 18% | * Names organization that offers certification. * Describes the organization’s mission, vision, and values and whether they align or conflict with your own professional viewpoint. * Indicates membership eligibility criteria. * Describes the financial aspects of membership such initial joining and on-going fees. * Include a workable link to organization’s website is included for faculty review. | Certification requirements | 30 | 13% | Describes criteria for initial certification including education, testing, required practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Are you currently eligible for this certification? If not, what barriers would you need to overcome to become eligible, e.g., the educational preparation? | Recertification requirements | 30 | 13% | Describes criteria for recertification including education, testing, practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Do you think these requirements are achievable and reasonable, e.g., do you believe you could meet the practice hour requirements in the time allotted? | Practice impact | 50 | 22% | Describes how membership (participation in the organization’s activities) will benefit your nursing practice, improve patient outcomes, enhance quality, safety, etc. Be specific and provide examples. | Certification impact | 50 | 22% | Describes how certification and recertification will improve patient outcomes, enhance quality and safety and so forth. What personal benefits may you realize, e.g., increased salaries or bonuses. | Scholarly writing and formatting | 25 | 12% | * Date, name of the student and instructor appears on the form. * Punctuation and sentence structure are correct. * Evidence of spell and grammar check. * With the exception of the organization’s mission, vision, and value statements, which must be in quotation marks, all work must be original (in the student’s own words). | Total | 225 points | 100% | A quality assignment will meet or exceed all of the above requirements. |
Grading Rubric Assignment Criteria | AOutstanding or Highest Level of Performance | BVery Good or High Level of Performance | CCompetent or Satisfactory Level of Performance | FPoor or Failing or Unsatisfactory Level of Performance | Description of professional organization40 points | Names organization that offers certification. Thoroughly describes organization’s mission, vision, and values, indicating membership eligibility criteria and yearly financial implications of membership. Relates this to own professional viewpoint.Working link to organization’s website is included for faculty review.37–40 points | Names organization that offers certification. Clearly describes the organization’s mission, vision, and values, indicating membership eligibility criteria. Omits financial implications of membership. Relates this to own professional viewpoint.Working link to organization’s website is included for faculty review. 34–36 points | Names organization that offers certification. Briefly describes the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Omits membership eligibility criteria and yearly financial implications of membership. Does not relate this to own professional viewpoint.Link to organization’s website is included but may not work. 31–35 points | Does not describe the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Does not relate this to own professional viewpoint. Omits other key information. Does not include link to organization’s website. 0–30 points | Certification requirements30 points | Thoroughly describes criteria for initial certification including education, testing, required practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Describes eligibility and barriers to overcome if they exist.28–30 points | Clearly describes criteria for initial certification but omits one of the following: education, testing, required practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Describes eligibility but not the barriers.26–27 points | Briefly describes criteria for initial certification but omits two or three of the following: education, testing, required practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Does not describe eligibility.23–25 points | Does not describe criteria for initial certification. Does not describe eligibility.0–22 points | Recertification requirements30 points | Thoroughly describes criteria for recertification including education, testing, practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Expresses opinion about personal achievability.28–30 points | Clearly describes criteria for recertification but omits one of the following: education, testing, practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Expresses opinion about personal achievability.26–27 points | Briefly describes criteria for recertification but omits two or three of the following: education, testing, practice hours (if applicable), fees etc. Does not express opinion about personal achievability.23–25 points | Does not describe criteria for recertification. Does not express opinion about personal achievability.0–22 points | Practice impact50 points | Thoroughly describes how membership (participation in the organization’s activities) will benefit your nursing practice, improve patient outcomes, enhance quality, safety, etc. Be specific and provide examples.46–50 points | Clearly describes how membership (participation in the organization’s activities) will benefit your nursing practice but does not mention improvement of patient outcomes OR enhanced quality, safety, etc. Be specific and provide examples.42–45 points | Briefly describes how membership (participation in the organization’s activities) will benefit your nursing practice but does not mention improvement of patient outcomes AND enhanced quality, safety, etc. Does not provide examples.38–41 points | Does not describe how membership (participation in organization’s activities) will benefit patient care. Does not provide examples.0–37 points | Certification impact50 points | Thoroughly describes how certification and recertification will benefit your nursing practice, improve patient outcomes, enhance quality, safety, etc. Describes personal benefits of certification.46–50 points | Clearly describes how certification and recertification will benefit your nursing practice but does not mention improvement of patient outcomes OR enhanced quality, safety, etc. Describes personal benefits of certification.42–45 points | Briefly describes how certification and recertification will benefit your nursing practice but does not mention improvement of patient outcomes AND enhanced quality, safety, etc. Does not describe personal benefits of certification.38–41 points | Does not describe how certification and recertification will benefit patient care. Does not describe personal benefits of certification. 0–37 points | Scholarly writing and formatting25 points | Date, name of the student and instructor appears on form.No punctuation or sentence structure errors are noted.No spelling or grammar errors noted. Mission, vision, and values statement, if directly quoted, are in quotation marks. Other information is paraphrased in student’s words.23–25 points | Date or name of the student or instructor is missingOne-two punctuation and/or sentence structure errors noted.One-two spelling or grammar errors noted.Mission, vision, and values statement, if quoted directly, are in quotation marks. Other information partially paraphrased in student’s words.21–22 points | Date and name of the student or instructor are missing.Three-four punctuation and/or sentence structure errors noted.Three-four spelling or grammar errors noted.Direct quotes are attributed but not in quotation marks.19–20 points | No student identification.Multiple typos.Multiple grammar and punctuation errors noted.No evidence of proof-reading prior to submitting assignment. Mission, vision, and values statement, if directly quoted, are not in direct quotes, and other information mostly or totally copied from the website.0–18 points | Total possible points = 225 | Your score= | A quality assignment will meet or exceed all of the above requirements. |