Emergency NPs Get Portfolio Credentialing Alternative

Portfolio requirements for the new emergency specialty would be around practice hours and continuing education. Requirements would also include an online application, resume, self evaluation, clinical narrative, and recommendations from supervisors.

"They would have to highlight throughout their portfolio their practice and professional accomplishments," Patsy Deyo, ANCC's product manager of certification programs, explained.

The portfolio credentialing program isn't simply exciting news for nurse practitioners who are exam-phobic, though. According to Swartwout and Deyo, it could open up brand new avenues for nurses in niche specialties to get board certifications.

Here's how Swartwout explained it: To give an exam, "you have to have a large enough pool of nurses to…make sure it's a reliable exam." But some specialties are so small that there really aren't enough people for that.

"There's a lot of specialization out there," she says. "If you didn't have enough people for an exam…there was really never another option."