Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist Certifications

Training

Clinical nurse specialists are among the most highly trained of all nurses, so it's not a career you'll get into quickly. First, you have to be a registered nurse, which requires two to four years of schooling and an associate or bachelor's degree. If you start off with two years' training, you'll need to upgrade to a bachelor's degree before you can get into a CNS program. They're highly competitive, and having a background in critical-care nursing, obstetrics and neonatal or perinatal nursing would be a definite advantage. Choose a master's degree or doctoral degree program that offers a concentration in neonatal or perinatal care.

Certification

Once you graduate from your program, you'll need to be licensed by your state's board of nursing before you can practice. Some states administer an examination as part of the process, or require you to have a national certification. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National Certification Corporation and American Nurses Credentialing Center all offer certifications for clinical nurse specialists in pediatric or neonatal care. You'd have to document your experience in the field and your education, and then pass a certification exam. Many of those certifications are changing at the end of 2014, to align with the new consensus model for advanced practice nurses.

Consensus Model

Each of the 50 states has its own board of nursing, which leads to a lot of variance in licensing. Every board sets its own licensing requirements, and a nurse's professional duties -- called a code of practice -- vary widely between states. In 2008, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and dozens of nurses' organizations arrived at a plan, called the "consensus model," to standardize certifications and remove some of the restrictions on how advanced practice nurses are permitted to provide care. By 2015, when this plan comes into force, every state that supports the consensus model will have identical requirements for clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives and nurse anesthetists.

Transition

During the changeover period, there will be some overlap between certifications. For example, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing will offer its existing CCNS credential for critical-care nursing until the end of 2014. The new ACCNS credential becomes available in the summer of 2013. Clinical nurse specialists holding the earlier certification will be able to maintain it, but if they allow their certification to lapse they must qualify under the new standards. The main difference between the two is that credentials meeting the new standard are designed to span the entire spectrum from wellness to acute care, while the old ones focused primarily on one or the other.