Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

28 NURSING SPOTLIGHT World's 1st certified burn nurse credential ready to roll out By Bari Faye Dean B eta testing of the world's first burn nursing specialty certification will take place from July 10 through August 6. Eligible nurses can apply, beginning May 10, to be one of the first to take the test and earn a certified burn registered nurse credential — CBRN. e testing will be fully rolled out this fall to the entire nursing community. When a burn patient comes into the emergency department or trauma center — and even during transport — there is no time to spare in getting them care, and "having advanced knowledge and expertise, and having the confidence and the ability to make the right choices when it matters the most, is crucial" to providing the highest quality of care, Janie Schumaker, BSN, RN, CEO of the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing, told Becker's. She added board certification contributes to a nurse's confidence, earns the respect of their colleagues and contributes to their career success. "When their employer supports certification, it contributes to their job satisfaction and retention," said Ms. Schumaker, who is also the immediate past president of the American Board of Nursing Specialties. "We fully expect CBRNs will quickly become recognized as burn care mentors and resources by their peers and teams." Like other nursing specialties, the burn nurse certification verifies the credential holder as a nurse who practices evidence-based, patient- centered care, rooted in the burn scope of practice recently updated by the American Burn Association. Emily Werthman, MSN, RN, burn program coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Burn Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, co-authored an article published in the March 2023 Journal of Burn Care & Research. She noted, "the time has come" for a CBRN. "As burn nursing involves so many aspects of nursing, from critical care to psychosocial support, recognizing the importance of the burn nurse's work in this way is incredibly meaningful to our community of professionals," Ms. Werthman told Becker's. All nurses from the United States, Canada and Australia who have earned and maintain an unrestricted RN or APRN license can apply to take the beta exam. ere are only 400 seats available for the beta testing; interested nurses can create an account at bcen.org so they will be ready to apply on May 10. e application portal opens at 10 a.m. Central. Nurses from other countries must go through BCEN's international credentialing evaluation process before they will be allowed to take the test this fall. e BCEN recommends two years of experience as a burn nurse before taking the CBRN beta exam, but it's not a requirement. "What is noteworthy and exciting about the CBRN content outline is that the burn care community can now see the scope and depth of the advanced burn nursing knowledge, skills and abilities — from prehospital and acute care, patient and family support, recovery and rehabilitation, and prevention and education — that will distinguish board-certified burn nurses," Ms. Schumaker said. n Fast-tracked nursing program shows early success in Maryland: 12 numbers By Paige Twenter A nursing education program invented at Baltimore- based University of Maryland Medical System is showing promising signs, its creators told The Baltimore Banner. The initiative pairs nursing students with hospital nurses for 12 weeks — a diversion from the usual practice of pairing students up with instructors who don't normally work at the hospitals. The new model is twofold: It introduces working hospital nurses to clinical mentorship opportunities and works to better prepare prospective nurses. More than two dozen other schools have considered adopting the program, Lisa Rowen, DNSc, RN, senior vice president and chief nurse executive of the system, told Becker's in March. Twelve numbers on the program and the state's employment data, according to the Banner: 1. About 100 clinical instructors and about 355 students have participated in the initiative. More than half of those participants have been hired as paid student nurses. 2. In June 2022, 27 percent of the system's bedside nursing staff left. 3. The number of registered nurses lowered by about 5 percent from 2018 to 2021. 4. The average nurse practitioner wage fell from $109,000 in 2018 to $105,000 in 2021, and the number of employed NPs declined from 3,700 in 2018 to 3,500 in 2021. 5. For registered nurses, median salaries slightly increased from $76,000 in 2018 among 54,000 employees to $78,000 in 2021 among 51,600. n

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