Nurse Certification: Credentials & Renewal

Displayed in a Hospital Family Area

What can you do?  What do you know? Healthcare is in the public view on many fronts today. Nurses know that better than most. They are constantly being challenged to show evidence of growth within their profession, seek continuing education for new protocols, or pursue more advanced degrees.

You might be enrolled in the first semester of your nursing program or working toward an R.N. or Doctor of Nursing degree as you read this. One task you are each aware of is the need for showing what you can do and demonstrating what you know for external certification boards as well as to meet internal requirements of your college or workplace.

Prototype of a myeFolio site for the Professional Nurse

The portfolio approach, long practiced in the healthcare profession, has made the shift from paper binders to electronic systems. Some systems have a short shelf life (used only to submit your evidence for evaluation) while others provide an easily accessible place to keep current records, documentation and evidence.

In today's Spotlight, the focus is on the content a nurse would include in their myeFolio site and how to best organize it. When getting started, you might be stressed but as you plan your pages and routinely add  postings, your portfolio can become an organized presentation of your career data.

Page Listing from Professional Section

Page Listing from Education Section

A detailed page chart is provided at the Prototype Site. When the site displays, click the "Prototype Page Chart" link from the text overlay to reveal content considerations and suggestions for pages or sections such as:

Home / Welcome  Professional Section Education Section Resume Critical Reflections

Each site is unique as you'll see in the "featured sites" posted on our showcase page. Feel free to visit each of these professional nurse's sites by clicking an image thumbnail below.
Remember that your myeFolio site will not be viewable if you set its status to private or disabled. Likewise, you can configure specific pages to remain hidden from view. When you change the site display status setting to "public," it is technically possible for anyone to view your site online. Unless you list your myeFolio URL with one of the major search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo) or link your site to a Website that is indexed by a major search engine, it would be difficult to find your site without knowing its URL. For these reasons, your content is unlikely to be seen by anyone who does not know your URL or has not received a visitor invitation from you.

Note: Additional "certification by portfolio" guidelines can be found online by searching your professional journals and association publications.