Future Directions of Credentialing Research in Nursing: Workshop Summary

The nurse workforce constitutes the largest sector of health professionals in the United States and includes individuals with varying educational backgrounds and expertise. Like other health professions, nursing includes a large number of specialties and subspecialties. Nurses may seek certification, based on various standards and criteria, from a wide range of organizations. Similarly, organizations may participate in nursing credentialing programs, which typically reflect the attainment of various nursing care standards and outcome measures. It is, however, unclear how this additional training and education affects health care quality and patient health. Future Directions of Credentialing Research in Nursing examines short- and long-term strategies to advance research on nurse certification and organizational credentialing. This report summarizes a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine in September 2014 to examine a new framework and research priorities to guide future research on the impact of nurse credentialing and certification on outcomes for nurses, organizations, and patients. Over 100 people attended the workshop, which focused on topics such as emergent priorities for research in nursing credentialing; critical knowledge gaps and methodological limitations in the field; promising developments in research methodologies, health metrics, and data infrastructures to better evaluate the impact of nursing credentialing; and short- and long-term strategies to encourage continued activity in nursing credentialing research. Future Directions of Credentialing Research in Nursing is a record of the presentations, discussion, and break-out sessions of this event.