Whatever happened to the Diplomate of Comprehensive Care?

[alexamasan]

I remember years ago that there was all this talk about when they were beginning to really push for DNPs in the late 2000's and early 2010's, there was talk about a certification exam that would be similar to the physician USLME step 3. There were debates within nursing about whether we should have the exam or not. The National Board of Medical Examiners NBME who runs the USLME was supposedly involved in making this test. Now when you google this, nothing comes up, just old articles from during this time frame.

I guess the effort died?

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Good question. I believe that the Council that was formed to develop and implement the certification exam was met with a lot of suspicion, reluctance, and resistance from various directions not only from physician groups but nursing itself. In the end, there was very little interest in the exam and in fact, I recall only 50 or so DNP grads took the test and only half passed. The efforts made by this said group was not popular to begin with and the whole thing just died off.

Interestingly, Promteric which administered the physical test and locations still list ABCC (American Board of Comprehensive Care) on their website as an exam you can sign up for. However, the number listed for ABCC sounds like a fax machine if you attempt to call it. The exam does not apply to me or my practice so I'm not sad to see it go away but it's also satisfying to me that an effort I considered frivolous ended up unsuccessful.

[Oldmahubbard]

I wondered if it was shot down because most people couldn't pass it, and how would that look?

[matthewandrew, NP]

I think that it was an interesting direction for nursing practice, which the profession was not ready to take. I think there is space in the future for this, just not now. As Nursing science advances, thus may be something to consider again in the future.