Certifications

As an ortho nurse, we have surgical ortho oncology pts that have come for tumor excisions and pain management, but, if they get to the point that the next step is chemo they are transferred to the oncology floor.

I am CPN certified (Certified Pediatric Nurse) - it is a quite pricey endeavor, but my place of work pays for your initial certifications, even if you fail multiple times. I had nothing to lose in being certified!

I think it is more impressive to be focused on a single specialty or a couple of closely related specialties. Otherwise, it starts to look like alphabet soup. Find out if your employer reimburses for certification or gives a financial incentive for being certified. My current employer offers $1500 to nurses who obtain certification is their area of practice.

"The hospital should pay for certification?" Haha, my hospital won't pay for anything, not even tuition reimbursement. Actually, no hospital I have ever worked at paid for any certification other than ACLS or PALS, then I had to pay and wait to be reimbursed. Those days are long gone for most of us.

Even though the NIHSS certification is free it was very informational and I learned a lot from taking the course and have used the information I learned in my ER career. The previous poster was correct. A lot of jobs that I have looked at require for ER nurses to have the NIHSS certification.

Now I don't think all certifications should be free or necessarily easy to obtain. They could be priced more reasonably though.

How long is the NIHSS certification duration, in years before renewal?

Most certifications require 1-2 years in your specialty area. What area of nursing do you work in?

Well I guess float RN could be rather non-descript.

I work in a level 1 trauma center and float between a cardiac icu, cardiac progressive, step down, icu, trauma floor, ortho floor and med/onc unit. The locked units rarely mainly because they're locked and I have to spend like a month orienting on them to be able to float there.

Anything like the stroke one is great since I cover the whole gambit.

I have the SANE-A and SANE-P (sexual assault nurse examiner - adults and peds), currently studying for my CIC (certification in infection control)

How long is the NIHSS certification duration, in years before renewal?

Two years, technically. I'm a big fan of NIHSS, because so many things are risk factors for stroke, so you end up seeing it done all over the place (cardiac/PCU, surg, neuro, ICU, etc). Plus, the scale itself is evidence-based as a predictor of short and long-term outcomes. So, it's a handy thing to know how to administer regardless of where you work, IMHO.

Except peds, I guess. I don't know anything about kids, and I don't want to know anything about kids. If I had my way I'd wrap them all in a giant Tegaderm so they couldn't make everything sticky or drip snot anywhere.

I understand getting ACLS. But why would you get certifications if they don't pertain to your work? If you are just trying to get certifications to look more appealing to hiring managers, have a cert in orthopedics but get a job in hem/onc, how does that help? If you work on a specific floor, the hospital should pay for that certification.

I work on all the floors, certifications make me look good in hiring managers eyes, but that's only part of it. The more I can expand my knowledge base the better, with how many different types I have to take care of every little bit helps.