Nurse credentialing...HOW? Money?

[danielleny2cali]

I am graduating in 2 weeks from an RN program. HOw do I get credentialed? Do you have to wait 2 years to have experience? WHen a nurse has credentials, does it pay more???

[Altra, BSN, RN]

I assume you mean specialty certifications such as CCRN (critical care), CEN (emergency nursing), etc.

You'll probably want to get at least a year of experience before pursuing certification. Being a new grad nurse, orienting in your first job, will be more than enough to "chew on" for a while.

As far as extra pay ... this varies from facility to facility. My hospital pays $0.40 per hour for specialty certification.

[babynurselsa, RN]

MOst of the credientalling agency have a required number of hours worked int eh previous year to apply for the exam

CCRN requires 1750 hours in the previous 2 years.

http://www.certcorp.org/certcorp/certcorp.nsf/certcorp/ccrn#Eligibility%20Re

[mtdnk]

The American Nurses Credentialing Center is another source of certification. You must practice for 2 years as 1 qualification for testing:

http://www.nursingworld.org/ancc/