The New Child and Adolescent Behavioral and Mental Health Exam

The Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB) has gathered information from a variety of national resources to establish interest in the development of a mechanism of formal recognition of a post APRN certification specialty in child and adolescent mental and behavioral health.

This exam will help to address the need to strengthen care to children and families experiencing these health care concerns:

"...Education and prevention are also defined as major professional roles and duties of both nurse practitioners and physician assistants. As the number of providers in these professions grow, there is an opportunity to develop behavioral prevention and intervention skills for those professions, and thus help meet the needs in primary care. It could well be that the most important providers of mental health services in primary care will be neither physicians, nor psychologists, but other health professionals, specifically physician assistants and nurse practitioners."

- W. Douglas Tynan, PhD, Interventions in Primary Care
from Treating Children's Psychosocial Problems in Primary Care (2004)

Purpose

The purpose of this exam is to recognize and validate those pediatric primary care providers who have added knowledge, skills and expertise in the early identification, intervention and collaboration of care of children and adolescents with mental and behavioral health concerns.

Who Can Take This Exam?

APRNs
Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
Family Nurse Practitioners
Clinical Nurse Specialists

Benefits

Specialty certification in child and adolescent behavioral and mental health care provides added recognition, beyond APRN certification, of practice knowledge and expertise in child and adolescent behavioral and mental health care. This specialty certification would not be linked to APRN state licensure requirements.

Updates

We will share updates about the development of the exam on this webpage, but if you would like to receive email alerts about this exam, contact updates@pncb.org.

NEW! 5/10: The PNCB currently seeks experts in the field of Child & Adolescent Behavioral & Mental Health for a special item writing and beta testing opportunity for a new specialty exam. Find out how you can get involved and earn the credential by contacting volunteer@pncb.org.

4/10: The content outline and eligibility recommendations are now available.

2/10: The role delineation study for this exam is now closed. Thank you to everyone who responded. Our expert panel meets in March to analyze responses and continue work on the development of this exam.

6/09: The PNCB met with behavioral and mental health experts to plan the role delineation study that will support the design of this exam. Research survey analysis and other activities will continue through 2009. The PNCB anticipates that the exam will launch in 2010.

2/09: A comprehensive task force that included representatives of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) and the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN) met at the PNCB National Office to review the results of our Child and Adolescent Behavioral and Mental Health Exam Needs Assessment Survey.