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BCEN’s TRAUMA NURSING CERTIFICATION EARNS ACCREDITATION
TCRN Now Accredited by Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC)
OAK BROOK, IL (January 8, 2019) – The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) today announced that its Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN) certification program has been accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC). Launched in February 2016, the TCRN is a national board certification earned by registered nurses (RNs) who have demonstrated advanced knowledge, expertise and experience across the trauma care continuum including injury prevention, prehospital care, acute care, rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Already, over 3,700 TCRN-certified nurses are delivering exceptional trauma care in emergency rooms and trauma centers, prehospital and transport settings, and critical care, surgical and rehabilitation units.
“Trauma is a widespread, costly and harmful public health issue and TCRN-certified trauma nurses are playing a vital and increasingly impactful role in addressing it,” said BCEN Executive Director Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CPHQ, CENP, FABC. “ABSNC accreditation demonstrates that the TCRN program has achieved a level of excellence and attained the highest quality standards available in the industry, and that matters to nurses, healthcare teams and institutions, and patients and their families.”
Nurses specializing in trauma “are the largest component of the trauma team workforce, and are essential for accessible, effective, and efficient care for injured patients,” according to the Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) position statement on trauma nursing specialty certification. Further, STN believes that “nurses who specialize in the delivery of trauma care should seek trauma nursing certification.”
According to data compiled by the National Trauma Institute:
- Trauma accounts for 41 million emergency department visits and 2 million hospital admissions each year.
- The annual economic cost of trauma is $671 billion.
- Trauma is the leading cause of death of children in the U.S.
- Injury is the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 1 and 46.
- Among people 65 years and older, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths and the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma.
Trauma nurses specialize in providing optimal patient care to individuals with a variety of minor to severe injuries including those experiencing life-threatening situations and those needing immediate life-saving interventions. Trauma patients include those suffering from head and body trauma and injuries from motor vehicle accidents, assaults, gunshot and stab wounds, burns, falls, environmental disasters, war casualties, and physical or emotional abuse or neglect.
“ABSNC accreditation provides an impartial third-party validation that BCEN has met recognized national industry standards for the development, implementation and maintenance of our certification programs,” said BCEN Certification Manager Amy Grand, MSN, RN. In addition to the TCRN, BCEN’s Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN), and Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN) certification programs are also accredited by ABSNC.
“ABSNC accreditation is a comprehensive, rigorous and data-intensive process,” said Grand, “whereby a certification body demonstrates that a particular certification program adheres to ABSNC’s 18 accreditation standards including organizational autonomy, basis in a body of research-based knowledge, nondiscrimination, test development, validity, reliability, test administration, test security, fairness of passing score, recertification, confidentiality, and appeals.”
ABSNC’s announcement regarding accreditation of the TCRN is available at https://www.absnc.org/news
About the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing
The nonprofit Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®) develops robust certification exams fostering empowered nurses across the emergency spectrum who contribute noticeably to patient care, safety and outcomes. Over 49,400 BCEN certifications are currently held by registered nurses (RNs) who specialize in emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, pediatric emergency and trauma nursing. BCEN offers the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN®), Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN®), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN®) and the Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN®) certifications. The CEN, CFRN, CPEN, and TCRN certifications are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC), the only accrediting body specifically for nursing certifications. Learn more at bcen.org. Follow BCEN on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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