August 2021
Greetings! I hope you are safe, healthy, and getting some rest this summer. The Academic Nurse Educator Certification Program has been busy. We are working on a new novice nurse educator certification (CNEn). This new certification will be a one-time certification, valid for three years, and non-renewable. Eligibility criteria will include (must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3):
1. Licensure:
A currently active, unencumbered, registered nurse designation in the country where currently practicing as a nurse educator.
2. Education:
A graduate degree in nursing with a major emphasis in nursing education or
A graduate degree in nursing plus a post-master's certificate in nursing education or
A graduate degree in nursing and nine or more
credit hours of graduate-level education courses or
A post baccalaureate certificate in nursing education.
3. Currently within the first three years of practice as an academic nurse educator.
Items have been written and are being reviewed by the test development committee. We hope to pilot the CNEn exam at the NLN Education Summit this fall. The goal is to launch the CNEn by January 2022.Speaking of the Summit, it is scheduled for September 23-25 near Washington, DC. There is a Certification Reception planned for outdoors during the Summit. We hope to see you there! The commission will also be awarding the 2021 NLN Certification Star Award during the Summit. This award honors the pursuit of excellence and advancement of nurse educator certification.
If you are interested in participating on any of the CNE item writing panels, please email me at pfifer@georgefox.edu or Larry Simmons at lasimmons@nln.org.
Thank you for all the work you do for nursing education!
Warm regards,
Dr. Pamela Fifer
Chair, Certification Board of Commissioners
It is hard to believe that it is August already. I hope that everyone is well and staying safe. The summer has been busy for the CNEcl and the CNEn test item writers and test development committees. I am pleased to announce that the new novice nurse educator certification program is moving along well. We hope to open the examination for pilot testing at the time of the NLN Education Summit in September. The test development committee is working hard to approve newly written test items that can go on the exam. As is consistent with the program, there will be two forms of the exam. The definition of novice nurse educator is having less than three years of experience as an academic nurse educator. If you or someone you know fits that description, and meets the eligibility criteria, we will be needing about 100 participants to test.
Once the cut score is set for passing, those who score above that score will be considered as certified. Watch the Certification web pages for announcements and more information as we approach the Summit. The Handbook will be placed on the website around that time. It will, of course, contain the test blueprint and some resource identification. Next year, Self-Assessment Examinations will be developed.
We received several applications for the Certification Star Award this year. I am pleased to announce that Trinitas School of Nursing in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was chosen to be the 2021 winner by the Star Award Committee of the Certification program. The award will be presented at the NLN Summit at the Certification Reception.
We were sorry to lose one member of the Board of Commissioners. Our thanks for her time on the Board goes to Laura Gonzalez, who resigned from the Board this summer.
I am pleased to announce also that the CNE program received approval from NCCA, our accreditation body, to offer the CNE examination via Live Online Proctored method of delivery. The CNE, CNEcl, and CNEn will be offered as dual modality. When registering for each exam, the information sent about scheduling will have information about scheduling for either modality. If you know someone interested in testing, let them know that component also.
Dr. Larry E Simmons
Senior Director
Credentialing Department
Getting the Word Out about NLN Certification
The NLN’s Communications team has been actively promoting Certification through the first half of the year, especially around preparatory workshops for academic nurse educators seeking certification to take their nursing expertise to the next level.
The courses we have promoted so far this year were held on June 11 and July 30, both online due to the pandemic. We featured these events in stand-alone eblasts to the NLN’s more than 44,000 individual members as well as in articles in the NLN’s Look Ahead, Member Update, and Professional Development Bulletin (now the NLN Accelerator) newsletters.
The emails provided information about the value of these courses and directed NLN members to register through the NLN website. The courses were also listed in the Calendar on the website and on the home page.
Additionally, we promoted the courses to our audience of more than 53,000 people connected to the NLN on social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. We also promoted the NLN Certification Star Award and the Certification Sentinel through these channels as well.
More recently, we highlighted the fact that CNE exam live online proctoring is now available. This was featured in the Look Ahead and NLN Accelerator and featured at the top of the Certification page on the website.
Finally, when NLN Certification is in the news, we highlight the articles to our members in similar ways. For instance, earlier this year, NLN Certification was featured in a story on “What It Takes to Be a Nurse Educator” at AllNursingSchools.com.
We appreciate our partnership with the Certification team to promote CNE and CNEcl to thousands of nurse educators nationwide, and look forward to continued success in these programs.
Mike Keaton
Deputy Chief Communications Officer
Get Insights & Inspiration at the 2021 NLN Education Summit
Registration is now open for the 2021 NLN Education Summit, which takes place in person September 23-25 at the Gaylord Hotel at National Harbor near Washington, DC, with the theme “Leading and Teaching Beyond Resilience.”
Our annual Summit offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn from one another and address the lessons learned and transformative educational strategies developed during this past year. We have learned many lessons, starting the first day our campuses closed and educators scrambled to put in place online instruction that would allow students to graduate on time and, most importantly, engage with remote instruction and virtual clinical experiences.
Tim Raderstorf, DNP, RN, will keynote this Summit. He is both assistant professor of clinical practice and chief innovation officer at The Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus. The Innovation Studio he founded at Ohio State is a makerspace that provides interprofessional teams with funding, tools, and mentorship needed to turn ideas into actions.
Tim also holds positions outside academia, as head of academic entrepreneurship at the Columbus-based Erdos Institute, a professional development and industry placement service for PhDs in scientific fields, and CEO of NursesEverywhere, a voluntary nonprofit coalition of health care leaders and innovators, based in New Orleans, that advocates for universal access to quality nursing care to improve health equity and public welfare.
After Tim gets the Summit started, there will be presentations and posters, lectures, and interactive workshops, plus networking events. You can tailor your Summit experience and choose from among eight distinctive learning tracks that will inspire innovation, collaboration, and connection, whether you are a novice educator or one with years of experience in the classroom or lab.
As always, we offer group discounts for NLN Education and Associate Agency members, so be sure to check the details at Summit.NLN.org.