CNE® Novice Eligibility

You should make attaining the Certified Nurse Educator Novice designation your goal if, after carefully reviewing the test blueprint and the eligibility requirements, you determine that your educational and experiential qualifications have provided you with sufficient opportunity to validate your knowledge of the role of the novice nurse educator. 

CNE Novice Eligibility Criteria

Must meet criteria 1, 2, and 3

1. Licensure:

   A currently active, unencumbered, registered nurse designation in the country of residence

    

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.   

Examples of acceptable courses include: Curriculum Development and Evaluation; Instructional Design; Principles of Adult Learning; Assessment/Measurement & Evaluation; Principles of Teaching and Learning, Instructional Technology 

Note: Graduate-level research or statistics courses do not count toward requirements

All eligibility criteria for certification must be met at the time of application.

Disclaimer: The Certified Nurse Educator Novice exam was developed to measure competence in the novice academic nurse educator practice role. Even though the CNE^®n eligibility criteria have been expanded to include new graduates of master's and doctoral programs focused in nursing education, the test itself was not developed as a measure of graduate program outcomes.