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Discussion

Professional Development Certification

  • Guides

I took the ANCC exam for certification as a Nursing Professional Development Specialist yesterday (RN-BC). Whew! Easily the most difficult exam I have ever taken. Much harder than the NCLEX in my opinion. 175 questions may have something to do with that. Lots of questions with three potentially correct answers and a need to delve deeply into the question to notice what they were really asking. Pleased to say I passed though.

I took the prep course in person through ANPD and that was VERY helpful. I would recommend it highly. I waited 10 months after taking it to actually take my certification exam; I would recommend taking it right about when you are ready to test rather than waiting. A lot of good information given.

I also found some very helpful resources on Quizlet, which made for great review just prior.

I wasn't able to find much info about this exam on here when I looked, so thought I would post my experience for others to find.

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    • Featured Replies

    Congrats- I thought my CNE was really difficult. I think because it deals a lot with abstract concepts- would you agree that it was the same in your case?

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    • Author
    • Guides
    Congrats- I thought my CNE was really difficult. I think because it deals a lot with abstract concepts- would you agree that it was the same in your case?

    Definitely. Not one question had anything to do with memorization of content. All were application questions.

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    What is the specialty certification precisely? Is it primarily for nurse educators?

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    • Columnist

    Congrats!!! It is a tough exam. I co-authored the Nursing Professional Development (NPD) Certification Review Course Prep Book for ANPD and presented one of the review webinars last fall.

    The certification is for nurses working in Staff Development (educators in acute care, not academia).

    I learned so much by first taking the exam, and recommend NPD certification for anyone working in staff Develpment.

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    • Author
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    What is the specialty certification precisely? Is it primarily for nurse educators?

    Many different specialties have their own certification exams. The one I took was for Nursing Professional Development. There is a different one for Nurse Educators working in academia - the CNE exam (Certified Nurse Educator).

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    • Author
    • Guides
    Congrats!!! It is a tough exam. I co-authored the Nursing Professional Development (NPD) Certification Review Course Prep Book for ANPD and presented one of the review webinars last fall.

    The certification is for nurses working in Staff Development (educators in acute care, not academia).

    I learned so much by first taking the exam, and recommend NPD certification for anyone working in staff Develpment.

    Ahhhhhh, so YOU are to blame....

    I can say, after taking it, that even I cannot doubt my level of knowledge about our specialty and that it is an accomplishment to be proud of. Even if I almost threw up in the parking lot after.

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    • Experts

    Congratulations! My certification is in NPD, too. :-)

    Watching myself and some of my friends take the exam, I saw that people with lots of experience in many different realms of NPD thought the exam was much easier than those who had only been in the specialty for a short time. I assume that is because it is so heavily weighted on application. People with more experience could fall back on asking themselves "What would I do in real life?" a little more securely than folks with less experience who were trying to apply abstract principles learned for a class or book. When I took it, I already had a little over 20 years of experience in the field and had been to more continuing education courses on NPD topics over the years than I can count. I think experience can make a big difference in certification exam-taking.

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    • Author
    • Guides

    That would make sense.

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    • Columnist
    Ahhhhhh, so YOU are to blame....

    I can say, after taking it, that even I cannot doubt my level of knowledge about our specialty and that it is an accomplishment to be proud of. Even if I almost threw up in the parking lot after.

    It is an accomplishment :) even though a lot of people don't know about it. Plus I love the job.

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    • Author
    • Guides
    It is an accomplishment :) even though a lot of people don't know about it. Plus I love the job.

    Me too. I truly feel like I have found a well kept secret. It is one of the best paid positions in nursing with a pretty low stress level overall most of the time.

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    • Admin

    Congratulations, not.done.yet! So proud of and for you.

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