ABNS Membership

ABNS has three categories of membership:

Regular Members are specialty nursing organizations that certify registered nurses. Regular Member organizations are allowed one vote at Assembly Meetings. Representatives of Regular Member organizations are eligible for office and for committee assignments. Accreditation of certification examinations by the American Board for Specialty Nursing Certification, Inc. (ABSNC) is not required for membership in ABNS.

Affiliate Members are organizations that have an interest in the promotion of specialty nursing certification, for example, testing vendors.

Public members serve as representatives of health care consumers to ABNS and the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification, Inc. (ABSNC). Public members are appointed by the Board of Directors.

Benefits of Membership

Our members consistently identify the following benefits of ABNS membership:

• Being part of a network of national nursing leaders and testing experts in the certification/licensure arena to discuss issues impacting nursing certification;
• Ability to attend twice yearly Assembly meetings and educational events on a wide variety of credentialing topics and exposure to leading international speakers and experts;
• Connecting with multidisciplinary certification experts to create and deliver quality certification programs;
• Opportunity to participate in the identification of a national research agenda leading to collaborative research initiatives with other member organizations;
• Enjoying a collaborative relationship with other nursing certifying organizations and partnering in campaigns that a single organization might not be able to afford;
• Opportunity to pose questions of our colleagues on the ABNS professional networking and communicate though online forums;
• Unite our collective voices to communicate the value of specialty nursing certification to multiple stakeholders.