New BCEN exam form and score for flight nurses

As of 31 August, the updated Board of Certification for Emegency Nursing (BCEN) CFRN exam form and new passing score went into effect. The updated CTRN exam form and passing score will go into effect in February 2022. While the CFRN and CTRN programs have always had separate exams, there was a shared exam content outline.

Separate exam content outlines have been introduced following role delineation studies in December 2019, which found separating outlines would best show the unique knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for both ground transport and flight nursing duties.

Professional credentials are a means to ensure clinical competency and professionalism and thus are a measure of nursing excellence. A role delineation study (also known as a job or practice analysis) helps credentialing bodies ensure their exams are based on current practice. Exam content outlines describe the specialty body of knowledge and scope of practice and serve as an essential study guide for exam takers.

Flight nurses deliver crucial care

“Flight and ground transport nurses deliver crucial and often life-preserving or life-saving care to critically ill or injured patients in health care’s most austere, autonomous and high stakes environments, and this most recent study underscores the unique aspects of each mode of transport,” said BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker.

The updated CFRN exam outline, published earlier this year, includes the following domains: General Principles of Flight Transport Nursing Practice as well as Resuscitation Principles, Trauma, Medical Emergencies, and Special Populations. The first, separate CTRN exam content outline will be published in early September.

Earlier this year, Julie Donnelly, Director of patient care services at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, received BCEN’s 2021 Distinguished TCRN Award.