You will learn a lot of abbreviations in nursing school. One you might run across is CMC. The CMC certification in nursing is an add-on certification for currently certified nurses who practice in critical care or cardiac medicine units such as: CCU; Combined ICU/CCU; Medical ICU; Telemetry; Progressive Care; Heart Failure Clinics, Home Care; Interventional Cardiology; Cardiac Catheterization Labs, or Electrophysiology Units. The CMC initials may only be used after another certification and is attached to that certification by a dash, such as CCRN-CMC.
Qualifying for CMC Certification
Qualifications to take the CMC credentialing exam include having a current valid license to practice nursing in the United States and hold a current certification in a clinical nursing specialty such as: CCRN, CCNS, PCCN, ACNPC, CEN, ACNP, FNP, CPAN, CRNA, CNOR, CRNFA, APRN, BC. The CMC candidate must also have accumulated 1,750 hours of nursing practice in the care of acute/critically ill patients in the two years before application. Eight hundred seventy-five of those hours must have been accumulated in acute/critical cardiac care in the year before application.
The CMC is a 90 item multiple-choice test given by computer on a year-round basis.Seventy-five of the questions are scored and the balance are non-scored items that are being tested and validated for possible future use in upcoming CMC exams. The candidate is allowed a total of 2 hours for completion of the exam. The CMC deals entirely with patients of adult age and the entire test focuses on clinical judgment. When the candidate is finished with the exam, the proctor will provide his/her score report.
To be eligible to renew the CMC certifications, a candidate must meet the same conditions as when originally certified, and must have completed twenty-five category A clinical judgment continuing education units within the preceding three-year period, and those education units must pertain to the practice of cardiology. In addition, the CMC applicant must have acquired 432 bedside practice hours caring for acutely/critically ill cardiac patients in the prior three-year certification period; 144 of those hours must have been accumulated within the last year.
A candidate handbook is available for download free of charge, which details the certification process, the testing requirements, and has a test content outline with suggested reading resources. The candidate should consult the handbook frequently throughout the certification process and used the study resources to direct study needs and time