SCRN - Stroke Certified Registered Nurse

With a stroke nursing certification, you can provide stroke patients care in hyperacute, acute, and post-acute settings. Not only does an SCRN certification help you advance your career, but it also ensures high-quality care for your patients.

The Stroke Certified Registered Nurse (SCRN) certification from the American Board of Neuroscience Nursing (ABNN) is accredited by the Accreditation Board of Specialty Nursing (ABSNC). If you work with stroke patients, this certification is a way to show your employer, colleagues, and patients that you are highly skilled and well-qualified for your role.

If you pay for the exam with a credit card, it costs $400. If you pay by check, it’s $425. You get a discount if you are a member of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN). For members, the exam is $300 if you pay with a credit card and $325 if you pay with a check. There are also some grants available to help with the cost of the exam.

All applications must be completed online, but if you are paying with a check, you have to save, print and mail the completed application with a check made out to the ABNN.

The three-hour computer-based exam is composed of 170 multiple-choice questions, with 150 scored and 20 pre-test questions.

To be eligible to take this exam, you must meet the following criteria:

• You must have current licensure as a registered nurse in the U.S., Canada, or some U.S. territories that is valid on the date of the examination. Candidates from other countries will be considered if they meet comparable license requirements and understand the English language.

• You must have a minimum of one-year full-time experience or 2,080 hours working as a professional registered nurse in some area of stroke care, whether you’re a bedside nurse, consultant, administrator, researcher, or educator within the three years leading up to the exam.

You must apply for the exam online. Note that there are exam and application windows. In 2022, for example, you must register by April 7 to schedule the exam in May or by August 11 to take the exam in September. You can reschedule once with no penalty, but you cannot cancel or postpone the exam unless there are special circumstances.

An SCRN certification is good for five years and officially expires on December 31 or the fifth year after certification. There are two options to renew. 

• Option 1: Recertify by exam. You can retake the SCRN examination any time in the last year of the five-year certification period. 

• Option 2: Recertify by CE. If you choose to recertify by CE, you can either complete 4,160 hours providing care for stroke patients over the previous five years along with 50 CE contact hours OR complete 2,500 hours providing care for stroke patients and complete 75 CE contact hours. All CE contact hours must be stroke-related.

If you choose to recertify by CE, you must earn all hours before your certification’s expiration date.

ABNN also randomly selects 10% of nurses applying for recertification to be audited. If you are selected and are recertifying by exam, you must submit a copy of your current RN license and documentation that you worked in stroke nursing for the past five years. You have three weeks to submit the requested documentation. If you are recertifying by CE, you will have to provide documentation for all CE hours.

Renewal Fees:

Renewal by Exam - Applications and fees will be available in June, 2023

Renewal by Continuing Education (CE)

• Applications received before October 1, 2022

  • AANN members - $275 for credit card payments or $300 for check payments

  • Non-members - $385 for credit card payments or $410 for check payments

• Applications received between October 2, 2022 - January 31, 2023

  • AANN members - $360 for credit card payments or $385 for check payments

  • Non-members pay $470 for credit card payments or $495 for check payments

The ABNN offers resources for exam candidates, including a candidate handbook and other study resources available by the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN).

If you are interested in getting another certification from the ABNN, they also offer the Certified Neuroscience Registered Nurse (CNRN) as well as a certificate for seizures and epilepsy professionals.