Quality Practice - Spring 2008 Volume 7 Issue 1 Print
NP exams approved
In August 2007, new legislation granted the College the authority to regulate Nurse Practitioner specialty certificates. And now, for the first time, the College is offering examinations for the new NP-Adult and NP-Paediatrics specialty certificates.
A nurse can apply for registration in a specialty in the Extended Class if she or he meets the requirements, which include graduation from an approved educational program, evidence of safe practice and successful completion of an approved examination.
The College has approved the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) NP-Adult and NP-Paediatrics examinations and will offer them in several locations across the province.
The U.S. exams were selected because they test the Canadian Nurse Practitioner core competencies taught in the College’s approved NP education programs. These competencies include health assessment and diagnosis; health care management and therapeutic intervention; health promotion and the prevention of illness, injury and complications; and professional role and responsibility.
The exams also promote labour mobility because the same exams are being used in other Canadian jurisdictions.
The College recently changed the exam for the NP-Primary Health Care certificate from the Ontario-specific Extended Class Registration Examination (ECRE) to the Canadian Nurses Association’s Canadian Nurse Practitioner Examination (CNPE): Family All Ages exam.
The 2008 dates for the NP-Adult and NP-Paediatrics exams are March 14 to April 25, May 29 to July 17, and Oct. 28 to Nov. 27. Exam-writing locations include Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Ottawa and Toronto. The 2008 dates for the NP-Primary Health Care exam are May 21 in Ottawa and Toronto, and Oct. 22 in London, Ottawa, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Toronto. Visit www.cno.org/rnec for more information.