certificates and certification

It's interesting that every  workshop I attend-- whether it's a couple of hours or a couple of days in length-- has a "Certificate of Attendance" (often pretty fancy, with my name in caligraphic font) that I could hang on my wall.

I also provide these for my Wound Care Made Simple workshops, because people can keep these as reminders for their College of Nurses self-assessment, or for their institution's performance review. But I always tell people it's a Certificate of ATTENDANCE, not for any kind of certification. Just means you've been there, warming a seat (hopefully learning something too, but since there's no test, who really knows!). I have heard people say that they have been "certified" by attending some workshop or conference, and that's a bit scary.

Certification means something else: an approved (by an academic/regulatory body, like a College or University) program with a standardized method of evaluation.

So, much as those "Certificates of Attendance" can be quite beautiful to display on the wall, they merely indicate you've been to something. And maybe learned something... : )

I had to change my title...

I was going to write something fairly long about how I had to make sure my academic credentials wouldn't possibly lead to confusion. But I worry that these sorts of things get out of hand, and just cause more anxiety. So, suffice to say, I now have "Tertiary Care Nurse Practitioner Certificate (UWO, 1998)" after my other academic credentials.

I used to joke that I wanted more letters AFTER my name than my name. Hmm. I've succeeded now, for sure. But the point for me is that I earned those credentials & I don't want someone to think because I now have to spell out the whole thing, I'll just give up and go away. Definitely not my style.