Central Coast of California Chapter

Excellence in Chapter Promoting the Value of Certification

The Central Coast of California Chapter encourages and promotes professional nursing through certification all yearlong.

Hospital Magazine Features Central Coast of California Chapter

The president and the president-elect, after attending the re-energizing and motivating Ambassador summit in March of this year in Southern California, took the lead of actively promoting the value of certification by initiating a conversation with the chief nurse executives of two hospitals where majority of the members are employed.

With that conversation, both were given the opportunity to present in staff meetings, assistant head nurses' huddle and clinical director’s meetings, the “Value of Certification.” We will be featured at a local hospital magazine with an article on promoting certification.

All the Chapter officers and members meet every month for a board meeting or educational offerings with different current trends in nursing topics that are evidence-based practice. Every meeting, the value of certification is being reviewed as well as keeping updated list of new certified members.

PCCN Webinar Produces New PCCNs and CCRNs

In March of this year, a PCCN webinar was organized by our chapter and attended by at least 20 members and nonmembers which resulted in five newly certified PCCN and CCRN certificants. Our numbers of certified members are climbing due to active participation of each member and officers encouraging their colleagues to get certified.

Regional Nurse Network Recognizes Chapter

Early this year, AACN Central Coast of California was featured and recognized by Regional Nurse Network — a grassroot professional organization with approximately 3,000 members — for their valued contribution in promoting the nursing profession and certification.

Chapter President Promotes 'Stand Tall' Theme

The chapter president is continuously promoting the president’s theme “Stand Tall” and the value of certification through conferences and a symposium. She got invited to be a speaker at a postmini-grad symposium for over 300 nurses and doctors on evidence-based practice, a conference for approximately 600 nurses and students on the same topic and another event attended by the graduating nursing students of a local college of nursing and the management team and staff of a local hospital. All these events took place this summer in the Philippines. It was a great opportunity to introduce “Stan Tall” and the value of certification.

Chapter Strategizes Plans for Current and Upcoming Year

Other strategies that we have put into plan for this year and next year are:

• To continuously improve membership
• Organize another webinar or review classes for PCCN/CCRN examinations
• Recognition of certified nurses at the upcoming nursing symposium planned for February 2011
• Initiate a dialogue with chief nurse executives of three other local hospitals in the neighborhood regarding AACN and the value of certification
• Fundraising event to be able to send more staff to NTI next year to get certified

Chapter Members Achieve Certification After Attending NTI

This year, ten chapter members attended the NTI in Washington, D.C., and as a result three out of the ten passed the PCCN examination since May 2010.

Chapter Celebrates Successes and Establishes Certification Goal

We are celebrating small successes whenever we have a new certified member. They are being recognized in staff meetings, email messages to all members, featured in a hospital magazine and personal acknowledgment by the chapter officers. In the future, we will be giving pins and tokens of recognition for each passer.

The chapter has a goal of increasing certification by 10% among members this coming year and the years to come.