CCRN Exam

If you are a registered nurse (RN) interested in working with critical care patients in intensive care, cardiac units, or trauma units, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) offers the CCRN exam to validate your ability and knowledge in these specialized areas. Certification is valid for three years, after which you must retake and pass the exam or fulfill other specific requirements. To apply, you must have practiced 1,750 hours of direct bedside care in the two years prior to application, and 875 of these hours must have occurred in the past 12 months. Furthermore, the hours of practice must have taken place in the U.S. or Canada, or in a facility that upholds the equivalent of U.S. standards.

To take the exam, you should first register online at www.aacn.org under ‘Apply Online.’ The fee is $220 for members of AACN, $325 for nonmembers, and $298 if nonmembers join AACN at the time of registration. After the AACN Certification Corporation verifies that you are eligible to take the exam, you will receive approval to test and may schedule your exam within the next 90 days at the nearest testing center. Testing centers throughout the U.S. offer the CCRN twice daily Monday through Friday, or the paper version is administered yearly at the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition.

The exam itself contains 150 questions (25 of which are not graded) over a 3-hour time period. The content is based upon a nationwide survey of the skills required of nurses, with the most heavily weighted areas being Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, Multi-System, and Professional Caring and Ethical Practice. The Certification Exam Handbook, available for free online, provides a test plan and the areas of content. The AACN website also offers a practice exam for a fee.

Results from the computer-administered test are available immediately after you finish, and results from the paper-and-pencil version will be mailed three to four weeks after you take the test. Results include a score report with the percentage of questions correct in each content area to provide specific feedback should you wish to retake the test. If you do not pass, you may take the exam four times in a 12-month period, and each retest is available for a reduced fee of $170.

To renew your CCRN certification after the three-year mark, you must have your RN license and 432 hours of direct bedside care to acutely injured patients (144 of these hours must have occurred in the year prior to application) and you must retake and pass the test. In place of taking the test, you may renew certification by earning 100 Continuing Education Recognition Points (CERP). These points may be earned through attending an acute and critical care educational program, writing articles for professional publications, giving a professional presentation, or any number of related activities.