President's Page

CPAN®/CAPA® Certification – Nursing Passion in Action

By Kathy Paskewitz, RN, CPAN®
ABPANC President

Are you passionate about CPAN®/CAPA® certification? I am, and so are many of the 9,046 nurses who are already certified around the country. Passion about certification is what fuels our dedication and commitment to our community. It is what drives new candidates to take the CPAN®/CAPA® exams and what keeps our organization thriving.

For the past 18 years, my personal focus has been on educating my colleagues, peers and friends on the value of CPAN®/CAPA® certification. I am honored to now have the opportunity to apply my personal passion to the role of ABPANC President. For the next two years, I will partner with my fellow Board of Directors to achieve our organization’s strategic goals. I assume the position of President with great enthusiasm, and will work tirelessly to build on the foundation established by the many volunteers who have come before me to strengthen our community of certificants.

Our patients deserve the high quality care that a certified nurse provides. As an organization, ABPANC is leading the charge to raise the bar in patient care even higher by encouraging all perianesthesia nurses to earn the CPAN® and/or CAPA® certification. In fact, I personally challenge each perianestheasia nurse to take the next step in his/her professional growth and become certified. I also challenge institutions and PACU managers to increase the number of certified nurses working in their units. As a manager, you are in a unique position to mentor your staff and encourage them to earn a certification that benefits them personally, and instills confidence in the care that they provide.

Certification opens doors, and certified nurses are more marketable in these competitive economic times. Passing the exam adds to your professional growth as you find your niche and perfect your focus. The reason a perianesthesia nurse seeks certification is profoundly personal and can mean something different to each of us, but regardless of those differences we all feel a strong sense of pride in our accomplishment.

Passing the exam is the first step you take toward a commitment to life-long continual learning in your career. After passing the exam, ABPANC makes it easy for you to become involved with the organization and community as well as to maintain your credential through the Electronic Log system, available on the ABPANC Web site. With a variety of volunteer opportunities available, all CPAN®/CAPA® certified nurses can find an activity that helps connect them to other nurses and to get more involved in the certification process including:

• Serving as a Certification Coach
• Writing questions for the certification exams
• Serving as a member of the Item Writing or Exam Review committees
• Serving as a volunteer leader on the ABPANC Board of Directors

If you are already certified, your passion can be channeled into education and advocacy. I encourage certified nurses to mobilize into a grassroots advocacy team spreading the word about certification and its value.

Certified nurses are passionate and passionate people are wonderfully infectious. They inspire others around them to take action. They are driven to act and become more involved with professional associations and certifying bodies on the local and national level. They are resourceful and dedicated to making their mark on the healthcare team.

In my encounters with other certified nurses, I have witnessed first hand the influence a passionate nurse can have on fellow nurses, patients, and others. I have seen your eyes light up when you talk about what certification means to you, and this light will draw others to you. Through your passion, you will find friendship, companionship and like-minded souls who share your enthusiasm. In ABPANC we think of it as becoming part of the “certification family.”

Perhaps today, and during this year of ABPANC’s 25th anniversary, you can start to focus your passion on becoming certified or, if you are already certified, becoming a mentor to nurses seeking the CPAN®/CAPA® certifications.

I know from experience that once you become involved in the organization, you will be motivated to do more. Earning the CPAN®/CAPA® certifications and getting involved in the larger ABPANC community has enhanced my career and my personal life—it can do the same for you. Put your nursing passion into action!