Specialty Certification for Burn Nursing: Value, Beliefs, and Benefits

Specialty certification for burn nursing will be available in 2023. This review outlines the path taken from specialty recognition by the American Nurses Association to the Certified Burn Registered Nurse certification. Clinical expertise, knowledge, skill, mastery of professional issues, and competence are hallmark features of a nurse specialty certification. A review of resources will illustrate the evolution of burn nursing practice with the development of burn nursing standards, competencies, and characteristics of the professional burn nurse. Resources are identified which outline the value of specialty certification, providing an overview for the impact of burn nursing certification on professional development, nurse satisfaction, and patient outcomes. Burn nurses play a key role in the care and recovery of the burn-injured patient. Since 2017, members of the burn nurse community have taken steps to confirm the role of the modern burn nurse and document standards. As a community, we are now poised to advance our specialty one step further and support the development of a national burn nurse certification examination. This paper provides a historical account of the path taken for burn nurse specialty recognition and national certification to date. The value and impact of specialty certification in general is outlined, thus providing a comprehensive overview for the value and impact of certification on professional development, nurse satisfaction, and patient outcomes.

Burn Nurse Competency Utilization: Report From the 2019 Annual American Burn Association Meeting

Competence in healthcare is a recognized expectation by consumers. In 2018 following an extensive review and consensus-building process, burn nursing practice competencies were published. Clinical nurse leaders were called upon to use these published competencies in practice as a basis for the requisite knowledge and skills needed in the care of the burn-injured individual. In 2019 at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, nurses from four U.S. burn centers reported on their center's incorporation of the competencies within their educational nursing curriculums. This paper provides a forum for each of the lead authors from Rhode Island Hospital Burn Center, the University of Utah Health Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit, Parkland Regional Burn Center, and the University of Chicago Medicine Burn Center to outline their current utilization of the new burn nurse competencies and plans for future use.