The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), the benchmark for certification across the emergency spectrum, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) certification program. Held by over 5,800 RNs worldwide, the CFRN is one of the longest-running, most complex, multifaceted national nursing specialty certifications.
CFRN certification independently validates an RN’s mastery of flight nursing clinical knowledge and professional issues as well as safety, survival, disaster preparedness, scene operations management, communications, and equipment and aircraft knowledge—all of which are essential to safe, evidence-based, advanced nursing practice in the highly complex, dynamic and autonomous flight nursing environment.
“Since 1993, the CFRN has stood as the hallmark of exceptional flight nursing patient care and safety,” says BCEN CEO Janie Schumaker, MBA, BSN, RN, CEN, CENP, CPHQ, FABC. “BCEN salutes the thousands of CFRN-certified RNs, past and present, for their commitment to their patients, flight nursing excellence, and advancing flight care worldwide.”
CFRN 30-Year Pin
Flight nurses and their partners, often paramedics, are the air medical clinical duo who provide clinical care for critically ill and injured patients during scene responses and interfacility transports.
The top perceived benefits of CFRN certification include flight physiology and flight nursing clinical knowledge, confidence and critical thinking in the flight environment, and a sense of pride and accomplishment, according to The 2022 Certified Flight Registered Nurse Pulse Survey. Nearly 1,000 CFRNs participated in this first value of certification research focused on flight nursing.
Throughout July, CFRN’s 30th-anniversary celebrations will include the following:
- Commemoration on the cover and inside the July/August 2023 Air Medical Journal
- CFRN Tributes from medical transport leaders and flight nursing pioneers
- The 30 Years of Flight Nursing Excellence visual timeline
- A CFRN 30th Anniversary special edition of BCEN’s InformED newsletter
- #ThrowbackThursday and #CFRNTributeFriday social posts celebrating the #CFRN30th
- CFRN Turns 30 commemoration on July 24, the day RNs sat for the first CFRN exam
Read more about the history of flight nursing and the CFRN credential in the 30th-anniversary edition of “Excellence in the Air: The CFRN,” from BCEN’s Commitment to Excellence Series. The series chronicles the origin and impacts of BCEN’s emergency, trauma, and transport specialty certifications.
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