Public Health Nursing Certification: Development of a Policy Statement

To meet the increasingly complex health challenges facing our communities, a collaborative of Illinois public health nursing leaders recognized that increased emphasis must be placed on ensuring the competency of the public health nursing workforce. Certification, a strategy designed to assure minimum competency standards, recognizes public health nurses who complete all eligibility criteria and signifies specialized knowledge associated with current standards of practice. This report outlines the methods used to create a policy statement and call to action for stakeholders who can influence and benefit from the certified public health nurses' contributions to public health and the profession. These methods include: forming a state task force, consulting with a nurse educator experienced in policy development, identifying a unified vision, and developing a multi-targeted action plan that results in the current policy statement. Research supports the benefits of certification in other specialty areas of nursing. Public health nursing has the opportunity and the obligation to demonstrate its value and leadership by becoming recognized as a specialty, certified to assure effective population-focused care delivery. Expectations are that certification of public health nurses in Illinois will result in improved population health outcomes and increase recognition of the profession.