New Survey Reveals Gaps in Organizational Support for Emergency Nursing Specialty Certifications

In BCEN’s 2025 Culture of Certification Support Survey, Nurses Report That Support for Maintaining Specialty Certification Lags Behind Support for Initial Certification

OAK BROOK, IL (November 20, 2025) – The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), the benchmark for specialty certification across the emergency spectrum, has released findings from its 2025 “Culture of Certification Support” survey which explored nurses’ perceptions of organizational encouragement, support, rewards and incentives, and recognition for nursing specialty certification and support for their overall professional development. Included in the findings are four key insights drawn from nurses’ open-ended comments.

Earned through a rigorous process, nursing specialty certification is voluntary, grounded in national standards set by each nursing specialty to optimize patient outcomes, and designed to ensure credential holders maintain current expertise through regular recertification. Research literature links specialty certification to improved patient, nurse, and organizational outcomes, and nursing specialty certification rates are a required measure of nursing excellence for ANCC Magnet recognition.

“Specialty certification reflects nurses’ expertise and commitment to patient care, and provides an independent measure of trust to patients, families and employers,” said BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, ICE-CCP, CENP, CPHQ, FABC. “Our survey highlights where organizations are supporting nurses—and where gaps remain—so we can provide the right resources and guidance to help nurses succeed, help ensure nurses are recognized for their clinical and professional acumen, and be more effective advocates for their professional growth.”

Methodology & Sample Representativeness

During February and March 2025, 2,509 registered nurses certified through BCEN in adult/mixed emergency, pediatric emergency, trauma, burn, flight or ground transport care completed the 13-question online survey out of 43,233 who were invited (5.8% response rate). Responses to the demographic questions show that the survey participants reflect the overall population of nurses certified through BCEN based on the distribution of BCEN credentials held and the variety of workplace roles and settings. This representativeness lends confidence to the findings.

Survey Highlights: Gaps and Strengths in Organizational Support for Specialty Certification

Nurses were asked to indicate whether their primary workplace provides specific ways of encouraging specialty certification and to rate the extent to which their employer offers various forms of support, rewards and incentives, and recognition for both initial certification and recertification.

Select findings are highlighted below, with full results and detailed charts available on BCEN’s Culture of Certification Support Survey web page.

About two-thirds of nurses said their organization encourages nursing specialty certification from onboarding onward (62% at onboarding/orientation, 64% at annual review, 65% ongoingly), though fewer employers follow best practices such as requiring nurse leaders to be certified themselves (43%) or offering mentorship programs (26%).
The most common support for initial certification is exam fee reimbursement (58%), albeit only for successful attempts, and facility-funded CEs (57%), but only 12% offer paid time off to sit for the exam. For recertification, 71% do not cover fee up front and 51% do not reimburse renewal fees.
Employers most often reward and incentivize specialty certification through clinical ladders and career advancement programs (55%). Most do not increase wage/pay for either initial certification (55%) or recertification (77%), nor offer a bonus for initial certification (71%) nor renewals (81%).
Initial certification is recognized on the unit (66% on badge, 61% announce to unit) and on Certified Nurses Day (54%) more than across the facility or externally, while recertification is rarely recognized—not in huddles (75%), nor on the unit (74%), nor facility-wide (84%).

The Big Picture: Nurses Rate Overall Support

Asked to rate their workplaces’ overall support for their professional development, initial certification and recertification, nurses’ responses to these “big picture” questions further underscored the relative lack of support for recertification:

77% said their organization supports overall professional development (26% strongly agree/51% agree), while 19% disagreed and 4% strongly disagreed
72% indicated support for initial certification (30% strongly agree/42% agree)
54% indicated support recertification (19% strongly agree/35% agree)

What Nurses Told Us in Open-ended Comments: Four Key Insights

More than 1,400 nurses provided optional open-ended comments about how their primary workplace encourages, supports, rewards and recognizes specialty certification. Analysis of the most common responses was distilled into four themes:

Organizational Goals Often Supersede Direct Support
Nurses’ Motivation is Primarily Intrinsic
Lackluster Financial Support Hinders Motivation and Momentum
Certification Champions Exist—But Coordinated Organizational Support Falls Short

“It’s encouraging to see that nurses feel supported in their professional development and view certification support positively overall,” said BCEN Employer Relationships Manager Kathy Mace, RN, CEN. “The findings also make clear there are meaningful opportunities to strengthen support—especially around recertification. These insights give all of us a chance to build on what’s working and ensure nurses have the consistent, sustained support they need throughout the full certification journey.”

View detailed findings of BCEN’s 2025 Culture of Certification Support Survey at: https://bcen.org/2025-culture-of-certification-support-survey-results/

About BCEN

Founded in 1980, the independent, not-for-profit Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®) offers emergency, pediatric emergency, flight, critical care ground transport, trauma, and burn nursing specialty certifications, including the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®), Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN®), Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN®), Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN®), Certified Transport Registered Nurse (CTRN®), and Certified Burn Registered Nurse (CBRN®). More than 50,000 RNs and APRNs are board certified through BCEN and collectively hold more than 60,000 BCEN credentials.

The BCEN Voucher Program reduces cost and increases access to board certification for organizations and nurses. The award-winning BCEN Learn digital platform features both free and fee-based interactive continuing education. BCEN offers a wide range of free certification support resources for credential holders and candidates, professional development practitioners, nurse leaders and administrators, including a popular series of research-backed white papers.

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CONTACT: Maris Hammons, BCEN Director of Marketing & Communications | mhammons@bcen.org | 630-339-4530