American Nurses Credentialing Center

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is the largest nursing credentialing organization in the United States. It is a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association. The ANCC offers credentialing programs in five nursing specialties: gerontology, medical-surgical, pediatrics, perinatal, and psychiatric and mental health nursing.

In 1966, the American Nurses Association (ANA) amended its bylaws to provide that one of the functions of each area of nursing practice was to provide recognition for professional achievement and the development of a certification board for each division to establish its specialized criteria for certification. By 1973, the ANA had begun a national certification program to recognize excellence in the clinical practice of nursing. Five practice divisions had delineated guidelines for certification by 1974. The same year, the first certification examinations were administered.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) was established as a separately incorporated nonprofit organization in June 1990 based upon the recommendation of the ANA’s Commission on Assessment and Renewal. In 1991, ANCC became a subsidiary of the ANA, and ANA’s certification, accreditation, and Magnet Recognition Programs were moved to ANCC.

Programs
Currently, the ANCC administers a variety of programs designed to accomplish its goals. ANCC’s Accreditation Program, established in 1974, recognizes organizations and programs that offer high quality continuing education for nurses and provides a voluntary peer review process to design standards for continuing education and measure adherence to those standards.

The Magnet Recognition Program®, which started as a task force in 1983, recognizes hospitals that are able to attract and retain well qualified nurses committed to quality patient care. This program developed a Magnet Model which groups 14 “Forces of Magnetism” into five components: transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, new knowledge, innovations and improvements, and empirical outcomes.

The Pathway to Excellence® Program was acquired by ANCC in 2007. It had been started by the Texas Nurses Association under a different name as an effort to improve nurse retention and the quality of care in small, rural hospitals. Pathway to Excellence recognizes hospitals with environments in which nurses can flourish. It has created 12 standards a healthcare institution must meet to receive recognition under the program.

The Institute for Credentialing Innovation® was created in 1998 to develop, execute, and manage innovative educational products and services to support the ANCC’s accreditation, certification, magnet, and pathways programs. These educational products and services include online learning, review manuals and seminars, regional workshops and symposiums, national conferences and consulting services.

ANCC’s Institute for Credentialing Research was formally established in 2005 to support research-related activities for ANCC’s programs and to encourage research demonstrating the importance of credentialing in establishing excellence in nursing and health care.

ANCC established Credentialing International in 1999 in response to requests for help from other countries, but was dissolved in 2009. At that time, international outreach responsibilities were placed within each of ANCC’s program areas.