How Specialty Certification Influences Professional Practice.

Certified Nurses Day (March 19) honors nurses worldwide who contribute to better patient outcomes through board certification in their specialty. In this month's Magnet (R) Perspectives column, Sharon Vanairsdale, MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, NP-C, CEN, program director for Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit, discusses the value of certification, what it means to her professional practice, and how it helps to champion her work. Ms Vanairsdale is triple certified as a certified emergency nurse, an adult clinical nurse specialist, and an adult nurse practitioner. She is also an adult clinical nurse content expert for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (R). She received the 2016 National Magnet Nurse of the Year (R) Award in the Exemplary Professional Practice category for her development of Ebola treatment and preparedness protocols, as well as significant contributions to the education and training of American healthcare workers around Ebola and other emerging infectious disease threats.