Board Certified Emergency, Trauma, and Transport Nurses Share Their Journeys of Professional Growth, Patient Care, and Self-Care in BCEN’s “Invest in Yourself” Campaign
OAK BROOK, IL (February 11, 2025) – The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) has launched “Invest in Yourself,” a multi-year campaign featuring nationally board certified registered nurses (RNs) working in emergency, trauma and critical care transport settings discussing the intersections between nursing professional development, high-level patient care, and their own health and well-being.
“The priority was to give nurses a platform to say in their own words how investing in themselves impacts their professional and personal success and satisfaction,” said BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, ICE-CCP, CENP, CPHQ, FABC. “And when nurses are at their all-around best, patients receive the best care.”
Specialty board certification—which is overwhelmingly voluntary for nurses—independently validates a nurse’s clinical expertise and professionalism based on standards identified by a nursing specialty to promote optimal patient outcomes, and requires regular renewal to ensure nurses stay up to date on the latest advances and best practices. Research links nursing specialty certification with greater nurse success and satisfaction (including higher pay, more leadership and advancement opportunities, greater confidence and self-efficacy, and professional respect) and a host of improved outcomes for patients and healthcare organizations (including improved accuracy, safety and ethics, better clinical outcomes, and higher patient satisfaction).
First Up: A Critical Care and Air Medical Icon
The first featured nurse is Allen C. Wolfe Jr., MSN, CNS, APRN, CFRN, CCRN, CTRN, TCRN, CMTE, FAASTN, a widely respected air medical transport and critical care expert, innovator and educator, who sets the stage for exploring the interrelated professional and personal aspects and impacts of “investing in yourself” and how certification opens new doors, drawing from his nearly 40-year nursing career path.
Watch “From Flight Nurse to Foodie”: https://youtu.be/me0SIp-qhAA
“It’s important to invest in yourself as a person. It’s about mental health—and I think when you feel good mentally, and your body feels good, and you feel you contribute to society and your job, it makes everything better,” said Wolfe, senior director of clinical education, Life Link III in Minneapolis and BCEN’s 2025-2026 board of directors chair. “After a certain point in your role as a nurse, you want to validate the knowledge you have. Once you put those initials behind your name, it’s a big deal. They carry weight. People see that you’ve invested in yourself and invested in your profession.”
From Flight Nurse to Foodie: A Whole-Person View of Exceptional Nurses
At the heart of “Invest in Yourself” are the many dimensions and contributions of board certified emergency nurses working in healthcare’s most challenging environments, explained BCEN Marketing and Communications Director Maris Panjada. “We wanted to shine a light not only on their clinical and professional excellence, but also show them as whole people and what their sacrifices and commitment to be board certified, in the context of everything else they juggle at work and in life, says about their character and the ripple effect they have on patients and their families, colleagues, workplaces and communities.”
“As a young flight nurse crisscrossing the United States, that’s when Allen became a foodie. It’s also when he earned his flight nursing credential,” said Panjada. “We filmed Allen in Kansas City’s historic City Market to underline how the professional and personal are interlinked—in his case, how his passion for transport nursing and clinical education—and food—evolved and nourished him in powerful ways.”
Three more board certified nurses with different roles and career paths will be featured throughout 2025, with filming taking place in clinical and local settings across the United States. Next in the “Invest in Yourself” series is a board certified adult and pediatric emergency/trauma nurse and U.S. Air Force veteran who works in a Pennsylvania hospital’s ED and Level I trauma center.
The campaign spans traditional and digital elements including email, social media, websites, connected TV (streaming), and direct mail.
Follow “Invest in Yourself” and learn more at https://bcen.org/invest-in-yourself/
About BCEN
Founded in 1980, the independent, not-for-profit Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®) offers robust nursing specialty certification programs fostering empowered nurses across the emergency spectrum who contribute noticeably to patient care, safety and outcomes. Over 60,000 BCEN credentials are held by registered nurses (RNs) who specialize in emergency, pediatric emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, trauma, and burn nursing. BCEN offers the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®), Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN®), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN®), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN®), Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN®), and Certified Burn Registered Nurse (CBRN). The CEN, CPEN, CFRN, CTRN and TCRN certification programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC) and are ANCC Magnet-accepted. Learn more at bcen.org.
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CONTACT: Maris Panjada, Director of Marketing & Communications | mpanjada@bcen.org | 630-339-4530
