News Releases

Nominate a Specialty Certified Nurse for BCEN’s 2026 Distinguished Awards

Annual National Awards Will Recognize Top Board-Certified Emergency, Trauma, Transport & Burn RNs

WHAT: The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) will recognize one outstanding board-certified nurse in each of six emergency nursing specialties for excellence in certified specialty nursing practice as well as advocacy and support of specialty nursing certification.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2026 BCEN Distinguished Awards as follows:

Distinguished CEN Award (emergency)
Distinguished CPEN Award (pediatric emergency)
Distinguished TCRN Award (trauma)
Distinguished CFRN Award (flight)
Distinguished CTRN Award (critical care ground transport)
Distinguished CBRN Award (burn)

WHO: Nominees must hold the relevant specialty credential, actively practice in that specialty area, and demonstrate a record of distinguished specialty nursing excellence and exceptional or innovative advocacy for nursing specialty certification.
WHEN: Nominations are being accepted through Friday, February 20, 2026 by 11:59 pm CT. Both nominators and nominees must submit complete information by the deadline.
HOW: To nominate a nurse, visit https://bcen.org/distinguished-award-nominations/.
Visit https://bcen.org/awards/ for complete eligibility criteria and nomination information.
Following the announcement of the 2026 Distinguished Award winners in late April, BCEN looks forward to honoring each recipient at local celebration events.
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. More than 50,000 RNs and APRNs who specialize in emergency, pediatric emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, trauma, and burn nursing are board certified through BCEN worldwide, collectively holding more than 60,000 BCEN credentials. 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®). All six BCEN certification programs are nationally accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC) and are ANCC Magnet-accepted. Learn more at bcen.org.