It is with great pleasure that I address this exceptional group of nurses dedicated to the specialty of plastic and aesthetic nursing. In my last PSNCB President's message, I offered a challenge to each of you. For those who are not certified, consider looking at the requirements to become either a Certified Plastic Surgical Nurse (CPSN) or a Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist (CANS). Your response may be, "Oh gosh-I am already so busy. How can I possibly fit this into my life?!" We are all licensed professionals; however, these certifications provide additional credentials documenting that we have acquired specialized knowledge and training and adhere to specific nursing standards for plastic and aesthetic nursing practice. Certification provides peer and public recognition that a nurse provides safe and exceptional patient care by adhering to specialized nursing standards and contributing to a culture of "best practice."
The other side of my challenge was to those who are already certified. Display those credentials proudly and maintain that certification! Remember that certification promotes continuous learning that is vital for the safe and exceptional care of patients in our specialty. One piece of valuable advice is to start your recertification packet as soon as possible. Did you know that your next packet is available 1 month after you complete your previous packet? For those of you who just became certified by taking the examination, your recertification packet is available 1 month after you are entered into the PSNCB system.
Our new online application process will make recertifying so much easier. Simply login on the PSNCB Web site and start your application by providing your demographics and hitting the SAVE tab. Each time you attend a conference or complete a continuing education event, you can open your packet and upload your credits. Make it a habit to do this regularly, instead of placing the certificates in a folder to upload later. Then, when you are ready to submit, your continuing education requirements for your packet are already complete!
The PSNCB works diligently to review each one of the submitted recertification packets adhering to the guidelines published on our Web site. Please take a minute to review these guidelines before submitting your packet. There are some common questions that do come up in our reviews that I wanted to take a minute to address:
- It is very important that you review and become familiar with the recertification guidelines posted on the PSNCB Web site. In fact, there is a box that you must check, stating, "I attest that I have downloaded and read the recertification guideline instructions before I begin my recertification application." This step must be done before you can move forward and complete your recertification packet.
- Core Specific Topics, which constitute Form 1 for both certifications: Ask yourself, "Is this topic specific to Plastic Surgery (CPSN) or any of the Core Specialties (CANS)?" Many topics can be applied to the specialty as well as other areas of nursing or medicine but are not specific to the specialty. If the topic is not specific to the specialty, you can still get credit for the continuing education, but it is considered a general nursing topic and is placed in one of the other Forms 2-5. Remember any continuing education units (CEUs) received from the Plastic Surgical Nursing journal will be accepted as a Core Specific Topic.
- Patient Safety Topics: Make sure that the patient safety credit is displayed on your certificate or the title of the continuing education topic clearly states that it is a patient safety topic. Patient safety can be accumulated in any category and can also include the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals (http://www.jointcommission.org). Remember Basic Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support courses are considered a patient safety credit.
- Continuing Medical Education (CME): According to the CPSN and CANS recertification guidelines, up to 15 CME credits will be accepted in a recertification packet. The remaining credits must be nursing CEUs, which are approved by an accredited approval agency such as ISPAN, American Nursing Credentialing Center, or the Council of Continuing Education.
- Date of Original Publication (Forms 1 and 5): When submitting continuing education credits from journal articles, you will need to supply the date of original publication for the article (not when the continuing education test was taken). This is necessary to meet the requirement that the article was published during your recertification time period.
- The Attestation Form is a requirement for recertification. There is a template in your recertification packet that must be filled out and uploaded into your packet. For the CPSN credential, this can be completed by a supervising physician or your supervisor who can verify that you have been working in the specialty of plastic surgery for at least 1,500 hours during the past 3 years. For the CANS credential, this must be your supervising physician or medical director who can verify that you have been working within one of the Core Specialties (i.e., Plastic Surgery, Dermatology, Ear-Nose-Throat, or Ophthalmology) for at least 1,500 hours during the past 3 years. This physician must be board certified in one of the Core Specialties.
The PSNCB is so proud to announce that as of September 1, 2019, there are a total of 626 certified nurses!
* 248 CANS ISPAN members
* 94 CANS ISPAN nonmembers
* 225 CPSN ISPAN Members
* 35 CPSN ISPAN nonmembers
* 1 CANS retired status
* 23 CPSN retired status
The PSNCB is here to serve you. Hopefully you are included in one of the numbers listed above, and if not, consider it a goal for 2020!
Respectfully,
Renee J. Hinojosa, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CPSN, CANS
President, PSNCB