Certification Renewal...need advise please

[topkat, ADN, RN]

Hello fellow NICU nurses. I worked NICU for about 17 years. During that time I sat for my Low Risk Neonatal nursing certification thru NCC. Since 1997 I have only worked intermittently. The last time I actually worked has been well over 10 years. I have chosen to keep my certification as I worked very hard to obtain it. I just renewed my certification and it's time to take the assessment to let me know which areas I need to focus on. Have any of you found a resource to study before taking the assessment? I feel like I'm at a big disadvantage since I've not worked in the field in such a long time. I sent an email to NCC, but they really didn't respond with any resources. Any recommendations are most welcome!! thank you in advance.

Kathy Laminack RN,C

Temple, Tx

[babyNP., APRN]

I would recommend having a glass of wine and taking the assessment. In other words- don't worry about it.

You can't "fail" the assessment. If you don't "meet standard" in an area, then you just do more continuing education hours in that area. You'll just have to do more CEUs (I think the max is 45) but there are lots of ways to get these CEUs. The NCC sells a bunch of modules that are fairly cheap and don't usually require all the time to complete them in order to get all the hours. In other words- I did a 10 hour professional issues CEU from NCC and it did not take me 10 hours- far, far less.

[topkat, ADN, RN]

Thank you for your comment. I have been taking these assessments for many years. I'm just beginning to feel a little "out of the loop" as time goes on....