100% Certified at Shady Grove Medical Center!

Sandi Burns, BSN, RN, CPN, Assistant Nurse Manager, Inpatient Pediatrics at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center shares their unit's journey to 100% certified.

On November 2, 2016, the Pediatric Inpatient Unit at Shady Grove Medical Center, Adventist HealthCare in Rockville, Maryland became the first unit at our hospital to have all certified nurses. 

We began the certification process in 2009 with just 2 or 3 pediatric nurses obtaining their certifications. The following year in 2010 a few more nurses became pediatric certified. It was all on an individual basis during this timeframe. Our final pediatric nurse obtained her certification in October 2016 making us 100% certified as a unit.

The No Pass, No Pay Benefit offered by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) provided an incentive for the last few of our nurses to become certified.

With this program the hospital was able to sign a contract with the PNCB allowing nurses to take the exam without paying upfront. It also had the added benefit of allowing a nurse to retake the test (at no additional charge) if he or she was unsuccessful on the first attempt. This was huge for us and lowered the stress level quite a bit.

We had a lot of support from our Nurse Manager, Mridula Naik. She made it possible for us to order extra study books which had practice questions and reference guides. It was a great way to practice answering test questions while reviewing important pediatric nursing content. She also provided us with information on study sessions.

With the implementation of the hospital wide Commitment Boards, we were encouraged to develop a personal commitment board of our own for the Pediatric Unit. During a staff meeting, one of the commitments we decided on as a group was to complete our certifications in entirety during 2016.

Our group of pediatric nurses are very competitive. We are always having a competition for something! That being said, we encouraged each other and discussed our progress during morning and evening huddles. We were determined to become the first unit at Shady Grove Medical Center to have all certified nurses.

Needless to say, we are SO proud of our accomplishment and the success of our nurses.

We hope we can send a message to our patients, families, and colleagues that we have specialty knowledge beyond being a registered nurse. We trust our efforts will be rewarded by being recognized as a group for excellence in pediatric nursing.

Thanks for your continued support!

Above: Shady Grove Medical Center CPNs at their hospital's Certified Nurses Recognition Dinner

Above: CPNs with SGMC President, John Sackett and CNO, Joan Vincent presenting their plaque. Included in the presentation are Director Mike Oxenford and Manager Mridula Naik.