CNOR Recertification: Why Continuing Education Alone Is No Longer Sufficient.

Health care certification programs are experiencing a period of great change because of increased public expectations and recent accreditation requirement changes. Nursing certification programs, including the CNOR credential administered by the Competency & Credentialing Institute (CCI), are not immune to these changes. The CNOR credential is the most common perioperative nursing certification and has more than 40,000 certificants worldwide. In response to updated accreditation standards, CCI recently announced CNOR credential recertification process changes. This article provides perioperative nurses with information on the effectiveness of continuing education for recertification, accreditation processes for certification programs, the nature of the new recertification mechanism and the process by which CCI revised and strengthened it, and specific information for CNOR-certified nurses on the timeline for recertification changes.