What Nurse Practitioner Students Need to Know About Certification
Gear up for success with expert advice from a nurse practitioner certification professional.
Every nurse practitioner (NP) carries a story — a spark that set their journey into motion. Some first witnessed the life-changing impact of a nurse’s care during a vulnerable moment. Others discovered their calling after years of dedication, whether within the health care system or beyond it. Though the paths that lead to becoming an NP are as diverse as the individuals themselves, the journey forward follows a shared commitment: earning a nursing degree, becoming a licensed RN, advancing through graduate-level education and achieving national certification. Each step builds not just clinical expertise, but the heart, vision and leadership needed to transform health care — one patient, one community, one story at a time. Becoming an NP isn’t just a career choice; it’s a calling to lead, to heal and to reimagine the future of care.
National certification formally recognizes all that you’ve learned along your journey to becoming an NP. To help address some of the questions NP students have as they prepare for board exams, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) spoke with Kevin Letz, DNP, MBA, RN, CNE-Ret, FNP-C, ANP-BC, PPCNP-BC, ENP-C, FAANP, the CEO of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB).
But first, it’s important to note that AANP and AANPCB are completely separate organizations. AANP is a professional membership organization, and AANPCB is a testing and certification organization offering four certification examinations: Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (A-GNP), Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP).
What unites both organizations is their dedication to the NP role and the students studying to become NPs. In this interview, Letz talks about his own career, misconceptions students may have about the certification exam and what he believes every student should know before they walk in to take the test.
Q: As an NP, what drew you to work in certification, and what does certification mean for the NP role?
Letz: My role in certification was a perfect combination of the roles I had previously served in, including as a clinician, an NP educator, a dean, an entrepreneur and leader in advanced practice and various health care systems. That all came together as good training to be in certification, where I still feel very much within the NP profession and supporting the NP community.
The certification board serves two different groups. One is the public, and the second is the NP profession. With the public, it assures them that we have a competent NP workforce, and the board certification exam is essentially measuring that minimal competency to practice. Additionally, as a national organization with 200,000 plus certificants, we also play some part in the stewardship of the profession nationally along with those that are in education, accreditation and licensure.
Q: What would you like all new graduates to know about preparing for their certification exam? What approach or preparation would you recommend to students?
Letz: I think we all know the certification exam is a big deal. It does cause quite a bit of anxiety, and I think the best solution to that anxiety is just to be adequately prepared. It's not just a few days, weeks or even months of preparation — the exam is really a culmination of all your NP education. If you’re early on in your studies, I think it's important to do the work, read all the texts and listen to all the lectures. If you're close to graduation, I think it's appropriate to go back and say, “OK, what did I miss, or what do I need to go back and read again?” I think there’s no harm in doing review courses or different types of studying before the exam, but all preparation should just be reviewing material you already know and refreshing that material.
I think as far as that short term prep is concerned, it really depends on how you learn. For some, it might be going to a two-day prep or review course, while for others it might be going back into your notes that you had or reading material again. I think there are all different ways — and you know your style more than anyone else. It’s also important to know, “OK, what is the content on the exam?” That’s all available on the website. “What style of questions are on the exam?” We have practice exams on our website that give you an idea of how the questions are formatted, and the look and the feel of the exam.
Some people like to go visit the test center to know where it is in your city or nearby, just to mentally prep where you're going that day and how that day looks. I think there's all kinds of things to do to prep your mind. But ultimately, our exams are knowledge-based, so either you know it, or you don't. We don't try to trick you. They’re knowledge-based exams so you have to know the material and have the knowledge.
Q: What are common challenges you’ve seen students experience, and what would you recommend to navigate those challenges?
Letz: I think it’s important to not put off taking the exam — it’s best to take the exam pretty close to graduation. It’s also important not to just walk into an exam as if it's a trial, and that you have another chance — because people that do that often tend to fail, and those who fail often fail again. Go into that first time and take the exam fully prepared, and not as a practice run.
Q: Graduation and obtaining certification are just the beginning of a long career of learning and validating knowledge. Could you talk about how continuing education (CE) is a crucial way NPs grow their skill set and stay current on the latest advances in health care?
Letz: Obtaining initial certification is basically saying you’re competent to practice. but you have to maintain that competence throughout your career. It can be done through testing, and everyday practice helps with that. I know when I'm practicing, I have to look things up, and that practice of looking things up is an act of learning. And then of course, there’s CE in various forms. We all learn in different ways, but practice is changing pretty much daily. We have to be learning all the time.
Try to figure out your best way of learning, then do that on a regular basis and build that into your regular work plan — just like trying to build a workout into your week, you have to build in that CE. For me, I carry around journals and books, and whenever I have the free time, I bust them out and spend that free time doing that education. Others like to go to conferences and just spend weeks listening to all the lectures and learning in that format. But ultimately, it’s trying to find what your format is and sticking to it.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Letz: My advice to someone who's just coming into the NP profession is that there's always this overemphasis on salary and getting the first job they can with a certain amount of salary. I would make recommendations to take a look at the bigger picture and know what your everyday looks like: what types of patients you're seeing, and how many patients. Do you have an orientation plan? What are the expectations, and more importantly, what is the culture and the mission of the place that you're going to work for?
I think there's three big things that are very important to have a happy work life. One is that you have the ability to use the skills that you have so you feel challenged but also prepared to do the work that you're doing. Two, you feel good about the mission. It’s great to take care of patients, and that mission is there. But what's the mission of the company that you're working for? Do you feel good about that mission? Lastly, it's the people you work with. Do you enjoy working with them? Do you trust them? Do you feel that you can be yourself around them? That is, I think, tremendously important in finding work that you can do in the long run and not get burnt out.
Join AANP Today!
Students who join AANP receive a $75 discount on AANPCB certification applications — a savings which recoups the cost of membership — and gain access to a number of other resources like a preceptor and faculty expectation checklist; webinars on student loans; and the guidebook “Gear Up for Success as a Nurse Practitioner: A Guide for Nurse Practitioner Students.”
All students attending the 2025 AANP National Conference are invited to the event Students Get SET: Learn, Connect, Thrive! where essential information about certification will be shared along with success tips for job interviews and how to make the most of the national conference. Students Get SET: Learn, Connect, Thrive! will take place Wednesday, June 18 at 4:30 p.m. A free reception immediately follows from 6-7 p.m.