Emergency Nursing is a nursing specialty in which nurses care for patients in the emergency or critical phase of their illness or injury.
While this is common to many nursing specialties, the key difference is that an emergency nurse is skilled at dealing with people in the phase when a diagnosis has not yet been made and the cause of the problem is not known. Emergency nurses also deal with non-emergent populations that present with non-life threatening issues as well.
Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN)
A licensed, Registered Nurse, who has demonstrated expertise in emergency nursing by passing a computer-administered examination given by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN). The BCEN is a division of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) The certification is valid for four years, and can be renewed either by passing another examination or by completing 100 continuing education units (CEUs) in the specialty. There is also an online open book exam renewal option. Currently the CEN exam has 175 questions of which 150 are used for testing purposes (25 are sample questions). The passing score is 75% and the candidate has 3 hours to take the exam. The test is administered in testing centers nationwide. Wikipaedia.org
