CEN Review

To qualify for the exam, you must have a current Registered Nurse license in the United States or its territories. The BCEN also recommends that you have at least two years of nursing experience in an emergency department.

The CEN exam is offered year-round.

There are a total of 150 questions on the BCEN Exam.  There are an additional 25 questions that are not scored making for a total of 175 questions.

The BCEN develops its exams based on feedback from emergency nursing professionals about the nursing concepts and skills that are most important to their work. This feedback has been used to develop an exam framework that emphasizes the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of conditions emergency nurses are likely to encounter in the ER.

The framework is broken down into seven sections loosely based on human body systems and one section devoted to professional issues. 

• Cardiovascular Emergencies (20 questions)
• Respiratory Emergencies (16 questions)
• Neurological Emergencies (16 questions)
• Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, Gynecology, and Obstetrical Emergencies (21 questions)
• Psychosocial and Medical Emergencies (25 questions)
• Maxillofacial, Ocular, Orthopedic and Wound Emergencies (21 questions)
• Environment and Toxicology Emergencies, and Communicable Diseases (15 questions)
• Professional Issues (16 questions)
• + 25 unscored questions

You can see the full test outline here. 

The number of correct answers needed to pass the exam will vary slightly depending on the questions included in your version of the test (i.e., if you took a version of the test with harder questions, the passing score will be lower). For most test takers, a passing score will be 106 questions answered correctly. However, this can range from 105 to 110 questions.

You will need to recertify every four years.