The Certified Transport Registered Nurse certification indicates specialization in providing nursing care to patients during ground transportation. This also indicates a higher level of training in caring for critical care patients who may require advanced nursing care during ground transportation. This is different than the CFRN certification that is specialized for those RNs who work in the flight transport of critical care patients.
In order to take the Certified Transport Registered Nurse certification exam, the applicant must be a licensed Registered Nurse. It is highly recommended that the RN have at least 2 years experience in caring for critical care patients during ground transportation, but this is not required.
The Certified Transport Registered Nurse Exam is offered throughout the year at testing centers across the United States. The fee to take the CTRN test is $230 for members of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) or Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA), or $370 for non-members.
The CTRN exam consists of 155 multiple-choice questions and the RN is allowed 3 hours to complete the CTRN exam. Twenty-five of the CTRN exam questions are used for pre-testing purposes for possible inclusion on future CTRN exams.
The RN must achieve at least a 75% score on the CTRN exam to pass. The Certified Transport Registered Nurse certification exam tests the RN’s knowledge on all aspects of patient assessment and nursing treatment throughout the ground transportation period. Specific protocols in ground transportation are tested, in addition to professional standards.
Certified Transport Registered Nurse certification is valid for 4 years. At the end of that period, the licensed RN must have completed at least 100 continuing education hours with at least 75 of those hours in the area of patient transport nursing.
For more information regarding the Certified Transport Registered Nurse certification, go to www.ena.org/bcen/ctm/ or www.astna.org.