A journey toward clinical nurse specialist recognition by Medicare: benefits of core clinical nurse specialist certification.

摘要

Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) face challenges in terms of certification because there are so many different nursing specialties, and developing and maintaining certification examinations are expensive. Certification may be necessary for licensure in some states and also is necessary for recognition as a Medicare provider. The core examination tests competencies expected and required for the role of the CNS across the life span regardless of specialty. This examination does not replace specialty examinations such as the one I took in urology, but may be used in addition to a specialty examination for further recognition through various agencies such as Medicare. This article describes my journey toward Medicare recognition, which involved developing and implementing a core CNS examination.