Advanced Practice Nursing Certification for Acute Care: Validating Excellence

Karen S. Kesten, DNP, APRN, FAAN, CCNS, CNE, CCRN-K, is director of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects and is an associate professor of nursing in the Acute and Chronic Care Community. She is licensed as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, a certified Acute and Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Certified Nurse Educator. Dr. Kesten most recently served as the Director of Faculty Initiatives at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and as the liaison for the work of the APRN Clinical Training Task Force, the AACN Competency-based Education for Doctoral Prepared APRN Work Group, the Implementation of the DNP Task Force and the Task Force on Defining the Scholarship of Academic Nursing. She also designed and implemented innovative and engaging learning experiences for members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to include faculty development conferences, webinars, toolkits, community collaboration and leadership development programs. Academically, Dr. Kesten was an associate professor at Georgetown University and was the program director for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist program. She played a critical role in the design, development, and launch of the graduate distance learning programs and the DNP program at Georgetown University. Dr. Kesten currently serves as Immediate-past Chair on the Board of Directors for the Certification Corporation for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. Dr. Kesten’s research and publications focus on advanced nursing practice, competency-based education and innovative educational methods.

JoAnne Konick-McMahan is a Certification Practice Specialist with AACN Certification Corporation. She works with volunteer subject matter experts and psychometricians to maintain the validity and reliability of APRN and specialty certification exams through rigorous studies of practice. The results of the studies of practice are the foundation for certification exams for acute care nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists as well as progressive and critical care nurses.

JoAnne has worked in direct care and clinical education in progressive and critical care units as well as providing transitional care. She is certified as a progressive care nurse or PCCN. JoAnne’s graduate degree focus was nursing education and she has taught in graduate and undergraduate nursing programs. JoAnne is the AACN Certification Corporation’s representative on the APRN LACE network and she enjoys answering questions about certification and the APRN Consensus Model. She appreciates the mentors in clinical practice, education and certification who have provided guidance and wisdom.

JoAnne telecommutes from Pennsylvania and loves hiking the mountain trails and gardening.