What’s the Certified Pediatric Nurse Exam Like?
What’s the Certified Pediatric Nurse Exam Like?
You can choose from two certification programs for pediatric nursing. One is from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) and the other from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The PNCB awards the more popular Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN®) designation and the ANCC awards the Pediatric Nursing Certification (PED-BC™) credential. Here’s a brief review of the criteria needed for sitting for each exam.
Exam Qualification
CPN
- Do you have an active RN license in good standing?
Do you have at least 1,800 hours of pediatric clinical experience completed within the past 24 months as an RN?
OR
- Have you practiced as an RN for 5 years or more with 3,000 hours in pediatric nursing accrued within the last 5 years, with at least 1,000 of those hours accrued within the past 24 months?
If so, then you qualify for the PNCB exam and are well on your way to becoming a CPN!
PED-BC
Do you have an active RN license in good standing?
- Have you practiced the equivalent of 2 years full-time as an RN?
- Do you have at least 2,000 hours of clinical practice in the specialty area of pediatric nursing accrued within the last 3 years?
- In the last three years, have you completed 30 hours of continuing education in pediatric nursing?
If so, then you qualify for the ANCC exam and are well on your way to becoming a PED-BC!
How to Apply
CPN
To apply for the PNCB exam, you must first create an account with the certification board, go to "Exam Applications" and fill out the application for the CPN exam. After that, you will receive an Approval & Scheduling email which will allow you to schedule your exam date with Prometric, a testing center available across the country. The cost for this exam is $300 for non-Society of Pediatric Nurses Members (members pay $255).
PED-BC
To apply for the ANCC exam, you must first create an account with the certification board, then register for the exam. After the application is complete, you will receive an Authorization to Test Notice, and must schedule your exam to take place at a Prometric testing site. The cost for this exam is $395 for non-American Nurses Association members ($295 for members). For information about the Prometric locations, scheduling and more, click here.
The Questions and Time Limits
- Both exams are pass/fail.
CPN
- You'll need to pass a 3-hour, 175-question multiple-choice exam. 150 of these questions are scored and the other 25 are unscored pretest items.
PED-BC
- You will need to pass a 3-hour, 150-question multiple-choice exam. 125 of these questions are scored, with an additional 25 unscored pretest items.
Exam Content Outline
CPN
The CPN exam categorizes questions into three areas, as follows:
| Content area | Percent of questions | Number of questions |
|
Assessment
|
38%
|
57 |
|
Health promotion
|
14% |
21 |
|
Management
|
48% |
72 |
PED-BC
The PED-BC exam categorizes questions into three domains, as follows:
| Content domain | Percent of questions | Number of questions |
| Assessment and diagnosis | 34% |
43 |
| Planning and implementation | 30% | 37 |
| Evaluation | 36% | 45 |
The Results
For both the CPN and PED-BC, you’ll have your results before you exit the test center. For the CPN, official results will be sent via email in two to three weeks.
Start Studying
Click here to take a free trial for the Certified Pediatric Nurse exams. For more study options, check out https://www.springerpub.com/examprep/nursing/rn/pediatric-nurse
Resources
ANCC. Pediatric Nursing Board Certification Examination Test Content Outline. (Oct. 2019). Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/~4996e1/globalassets/certification/certification-specialty-pages/resources/test-content-outlines/pediatricnursing-tco-after.pdf
ANCC. ANCC Certification General Testing And Renewal Handbook. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4ac882/globalassets/certification/renewals/GeneralTestingandRenewalHandbook
ANCC. Pediatric Nursing Certification (PED-BC™). https://www.nursingworld.org/our-certifications/pediatric-nurse/
Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. Certified Pediatric Nurse Certification Exam
Detailed Content Outline (Oct. 2019). Retrieved from https://www.pncb.org/sites/default/files/resources/CPN_Content_Outline_Final.pdf
Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. Steps to CPN Certification. Retrieved from
https://www.pncb.org/cpn-certification-steps
Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. CPN Exam Scoring. Retrieved from
https://www.pncb.org/cpn-exam-scoring