Spring, 2013
In Touch with Your Certification Organization
As usual, things at BONENT have been very busy, many new projects, many new causes.
State Certification vs Federal Requirement
Now, we have national certification for PCT’s required by CMS. Next, maybe we should move on to mandatory certification for RN’s since they are the frontline taking care of our patients. There remain issues to be resolved regarding PCT certification. Do you need to remain certified? We at BONENT believe that is what the CMS guidelines, as written, say. What about if a PCT has a State license to practice? Do they need to meet the Federal Guidelines? The answer is yes. Does what you do to keep current for your State meet the Federal requirement? That is not at all clear. So, BONENT has been involved in clarifying this for our membership.
Our 40th Anniversary Getting Closer
2014 will be the 40th Anniversary of BONENT. Starting in 1974, just after Medicare coverage was approved for ESRD, BONENT certified our first nurses and technicians in dialysis care. In 1984, we expanded our exams from CHT and CHN to include PD nurses as CPDN’s. In 1984, American Association of Nephrology Nurses and Technicians (AANNT) renamed themselves American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA) and excluded technicians from being full members. At that time, NANT was formed. In 1987, ANNA decided that since there was not a certifying organizations that certified nurses only that they needed to found organization for that sole purpose. That is when the Nephrology Nursing Certification Commission came into existence. 25 years later BONENT is still going strong.
BONENT is known internationally as the certification of choice. Australia, New Zealand and Singapore require nurses and technicians to be BONENT certified. BONENT is the premiere certification for professionals working in dialysis. For our 40th anniversary, we have a number of things planned. You will see more about this in future newsletters. We are developing new exams and we have a number of new opportunities for our members.
BIO-Med Exam Coming in 2014
Testing will always be the most important part of BONENT. That is who we are. Saying that, we will have 2 new examinations ready for our Anniversary in 2014. The first will be the BIO-Med exam. We have nearly completed the job analysis that will give us the outline for the exam. From there, we will need Bio-Med technicians and experts in the field to write exam questions. If you have time and the desire to write questions, contact Dennis Schell @ schellfamily5@sbcglobal.net. He is in the lead for the development of this exam. If we can get 50-100 people to each write 5-10 questions, this will go much quicker and put less of a burden on the core group 10 that are on the development committee.
Spanish CHT Exam Update
The second exam we will have ready for 2014 is the Spanish CHT. We have a professional translation group that is doing the translation now. In 2-4 weeks, we will need 5 bilingual CHT’s to ensure that the translation means what English version does. We want to avoid anything getting lost in translation. If you read and speak both Spanish and English and want to be part of this, contact Lyle Smith at lyle_bonent@msn.com.
Our Regional Seminars for Nurses & Technicians, Members & Non Members
As you know, BONENT has been doing excellent regional seminars for the past year. We have been able, through the hard work of the Continuing Education Committee, to recruit some of the best speakers in dialysis. There is one problem! Not enough people are attending! Most of our membership is missing a great opportunity to hear some excellent information will help you take better care of your patients.
The next BONENT Regional Education seminar will be the Northeast in Newark, NJ. Details are on page 3 of the spring newsletter and on the BONENT website, including speakers, hotel, pricing. We have implemented a discount for facilities sending multiple people. These seminars are for all dialysis nurses and technicians, not just for BONENT members, not just for technicians. So, tell the nurses and technicians you work with about this.
As always, we, on the BONENT Board, are here to serve the membership. If you have any concerns or ideas on how we can be better, email me at president@bonent.org.
Click here to read previous Letters from the President.