National groups offer certification exams
The National Association for Home Care (NAHC) in Washington, DC, has launched a new program to certify home care and hospice executives, who can now join hospice physicians and nurses to demonstrate their professional competency.
Certified Home/Hospice Care Executives (CHCEs) have been credentialed by NAHC since last fall and at least 48 have passed the three-hour, 170-question, multiple-choice exam. A single exam is used for both home care and hospice executives, because of the overlap in their job responsibilities. The test is offered year-round, with advance registration, at 170 test centers around the country operated by Assessment Systems, Inc. Tests and test preparation courses will also be offered at selected NAHC meetings.
Eligibility requirements for executive certification vary, depending on applicants’ educational background and years of experience at executive or management levels. The test offers hospice managers a chance to establish their credentials and demonstrate mastery of a defined body of knowledge. For more information about this program, contact NAHC at 228 7th St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. Telephone: (202) 547-7424. To schedule an exam, call (888) 274-1414.
The American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, an offshoot of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, both in Gainesville, FL, held its first certification examination in hospice and palliative medicine in November, with 126 physicians passing the test. Next scheduled exams for physicians are April 19 and October 18.
Meanwhile, the oldest of these hospice certification programs, offered by the National Board of Certification of Hospice Nurses (NBCHN), an offshoot of the Hospice Nurses Association in Pittsburgh is now in its third year. Over 3,000 nurses have earned the credential CRNH (certified registered nurse, hospice), and about 500 nurses take the semiannual exam each time it is offered. (The next exam is scheduled on September 20.) The first CRNH graduating class will face a recertification examination next spring, reports Lynn Borstelman, RN, MN, CRNH, hospice nurse with Hospice of Central New York in Syracuse and NBCHN’s president.
"Some employers now use certification as a way of evaluating hires, to support the validation of their knowledge base. Some are even requiring that all of their nurses achieve certification," Borstelman says. "Nurses who have taken the exam also find personal validation in mastering a body of knowledge that has coherence, namely, hospice nursing."
[Both the physician and nurse certification programs are administered by Professional Testing Corporation, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036. Telephone: (212) 852-0400.]
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