As a measure of quality, professional certification bodies can opt to participate in a voluntary accreditation process, which follows a process-based framework. Most certification bodies choose to be accredited to one of two standards:
And in the field of nursing, there is a specialized accreditor, the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC) Standards. Each organization maintains a publicly available list of accredited certification bodies and their certifications.
Since only a small percentage of certification bodies partake in the accreditation process, there needs to be other ways to gather information to make a judgment about certification quality. The questions outlined below can be used to help uncover answers about the processes and outcomes associated with a certification to assess quality.
