Critical care staff nurses: empowerment, certification, and intent to leave.

BACKGROUND Certification is a voluntary process that is used to recognize specialized knowledge and skills. Little research has been focused on staff nurses with specialty certification. OBJECTIVE To determine if perceptions of empowerment and intent to leave the position and the profession differed among staff nurses who were certified by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, nurses certified by other certifying organizations, and nurses who were not certified. METHODS A comparative descriptive study was used to analyze the results of a 2007 to 2008 Web-based survey of members of the association. Data were available on 4268 staff nurses. RESULTS Total empowerment scores and intent to leave either the position or the profession did not differ between nurses who were certified and those who were not. However, perceptions of informal power, opportunity, and support did differ between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS The differences between nurses who were certified and those who were not may be related to variables other than certification. Further research and theoretical model testing is needed to determine the value of certification.