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There are currently 19 Certification Examinations for other nursing specialties in Canada. Why not PeriAnesthesia Nursing?
NAPANc has submitted a Proposal for Designation of PeriAnesthesia Nursing as a Specialty in order to qualify for Certification in PeriAnesthesia Nursing with the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA). This proposal was accepted in October, 2010 with a follow up letter confirming this acceptance in February, 2011.
Read on to see the steps in our quest for Certification Examination development to date, and next steps.......
Certification Timelines and Projects Completed and Underway:
2008: All provincial/territorial representatives of NAPANc have contacted their regulatory bodies to ask them to have an option to collect data on our annual registration forms for “PeriAnesthesia Nurses”: we will soon have the designation, “PeriAnesthesia” as an option when we renew our College registration each year! Watch for it! We will be tracking the changes across the country as the changes are made and we will be dealing with every college to ensure that this method of tracking our numbers is in place soon. If we had this option, we would then have a better idea of the number of perianesthesia nurses there are across Canada and be able to report this to the CNA. If you see the option on your next RN registration form, be sure to mark it with the designation: “PeriAnesthesia” nursing!
Update: To date, 2012: Nova Scotia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have added a separate designation on their provincial Registration forms. Watch for updates on this!
In order to expedite the Certification process and collect this data via another method, NAPANc contacted multiple hospitals in Ontario for their numbers of PeriAnesthesia nurses, and estimated the total numbers of PeriAnesthesia Nurses across Canada based on numbers per population (using CNA's Statistics on numbers of nurses by population across Canada). The estimated number of PeriAnesthesia Nurses across Canada has been estimated to be approximately 10,000 working in hospitals alone! Then there are those who work in clinics, offices and surgical centres outside of hospitals.....
2008: NAPANc Standards for Practice published in English and in 2009 into French. This is one of the prerequisities for Certification, once the specialty has been nationalized into an independent association (NAPANc founded in 2002).
2009-10: NAPANc has collected names from over 1,000 PeriAnesthesia Nurses across Canada that are interested in taking this Certification Examination.
2009-10: NAPANc has collected names of Advanced Practice Nurses (APN) in PeriAnesthesia domains across the country (Managers, Educators, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Nurse Practitioners) who work in any of the domains of perianesthesia (PreAdmission, Day of Surgery Admission, Anesthesia administration, Postanesthesia Care Units, Day Surgery Units, Extended Observation Areas including inpatient surgical units, Dental clinics, Endoscopy, Cystoscopy, Diagnostic Imaging, Cardiac Catheterization Labs, Surgicentres, Labour and Delivery) where anesthesia is going to be/has been delivered.
2009-10: NAPANc has collected signatures from over 140 people who have endorsed these standards as their standards for practice, from all across the country! We will still accept more, so please feel free to complete the attached letter of endorsement (or change it to suit your thoughts) and submit by mail, email or fax to the address indicated. Endorsement of Standards Letter.
2009-10: NAPANc has taken applications from PeriAnesthesia nurses who would be interested in assisting us with the development of this examination and the Study Guide that will be necessary for use prior to writing this examination. More volunteers are welcome. Please contact us at:
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. We require experts in the following areas:
- Domain of expertise: we need those with experience from a selection of PreAdmission, Day Surgery, Post Anesthetic Care Unit, Labour and Delivery, Outpatient Clinics and Pain Management areas
- Stage of Development: we need a variety of those experienced in Adult, Pediatric and Geriatric perianesthesia nursing care
- Region of the country you live/work in: we need a cross-section of experts from across Canada
- Expertise in areas of administration, education, practice and research
- 6 French speaking/bilingual PeriAnesthesia experts for our committees
If you are interested and think you would qualify to assist in this project, please contact as soon as you can. Please attach a recent resume for our perusal.
May, 2010:
- All above data collated.
- 37 page Proposal written and rewritten over the past 9 months by the Proposal Subcomittee members of the Certification Committee (Thao Le, Quebec; Sandra Robinson, Ontario; Heather Ead, Ontario; Paula Ferguson, Ontario).
- Proposal was approved at the NAPANc Board of Directors Meeting in Calgary, Alberta on May 28, 2010.
June 15, 2010: Proposal for Certification of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada submitted to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) by NAPANc with all data collections as listed above.
October, 2010: CNA has reviewed our Proposal. Decision has been made, and reported to us....Our Proposal has been accepted!
March, 2011: Designation as a Specialty area of Nursing has been officially granted. Please see attached Letter from the CNA.
Summer, 2011: To date, no time has been proposed to begin the next steps. The CNA is currently developing a new 5 year strategic plan, which will include our Certification Examination development. Until this is complete, we have not been given an exact date on which to begin.
October, 2011: CEO of the CNA, Rachel Bard, visits the International Conference for PeriAnesthesia Nurses. At this conference, the announcement is made that PeriAnesthesia Nurses will now proceed to Certification. Contracts to be signed. Development to begin in 2012.
October, 2011: NAPANc publishes second edition of Standards for Practice! CNA is enthusiastic about this update, as it shows our determination and passion as a specialty of nursing.
February 8, 2012 (PeriAnesthesia Nurses Day, 2012): President of NAPANc signs and submits the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the CNA and NAPANc for commitment of sponsorship and development of Certification Exam. This is countersigned by the CEO of the CNA, Rachel Bard and returned to NAPANc. PeriAnesthesia Nurses will be the 20th specialty to have a Certification Examination!
February, 2012: First installment of sponsorship from NAPANc's fundraising efforts is sent to the CNA.
Next steps: Fundraising efforts increase with next sponsorship commitment dates of June, September and December, 2012.
What is entailed during the development process:
1) The Competency Committee will meet in 3 locations: in Halifax, Ottawa and Vancouver, in order to develop a comprehensive list of competencies that the Certification Examination will be based on.
2) The Item Writing Committee will then meet to begin work on writing contents of examinations and study guides.
3) The Exam Committee will meet to begin discussions on the logistics of the examination: eligibility, passing grade and much more.
4) Then the Translation Committee will ensure that examinations are translated into French fluently.
If you wish further information or wish to become involved, please don't hesitate to contact the NAPANc office:
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or (905) 257-7522!
Thank you,
NAPANc Executive and Board of Directors
February, 2012.
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