tell me about the certification renewal?

[Wheaties]

Hello,

I work in Med-Surg for the last 3 years now. I'm considering getting a Med-Surg certification. But before I do, I'm wondering what are the requirements to renew? do I just have to do contact hours or do I have to do anything extra?

right now getting 30 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew my RN license here in the state of California is easy. I usually do on average 2 contact hours a month online so that way I won't have to cram the last minute to get those 30.

I'm still on the fence about getting this certification because I don't really have any plans to stay in Med-Surg. And I know I have to have 1000 work hours in the last 5 years to get the renewal. Although it would be nice to have it and test the knowledge that I have acquired and learned during the last 3 years. I'm wondering, once I do take the Med-surg certification, and I do pass it, do I have to work in this specialty if I want to renew my license? how does that work? I'm looking to work in the surgical department someday, hopefully in the next year, whether it be pre-op, post op or what not. This is another reason why I'm wondering if it's even worth it.

anyways, any advice and tips is much appreciated.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

IMO, I would not put in the effort or cost to get certified if you are going to leave. You do have to have so many nursing hours in your field of certification, or it doesn't count. So you cannot go to surgery and keep your med/surg cert. Why not wait and get OR certified?

The only plus I could think of would have it look good on a resume. Still pretty spendy though.