Nursing Specialty Certification and Patient Outcomes: What We Know in Acute Care Hospitals and Future Directions

Needleman's Expanded Conceptual Model for Credentialing Research provides a mechanism for driving theory-based research about the association of specialty certification and patient outcomes by providing specific intervening variables: invisible architecture, work organization, and performance. Specific aspects of the model can be studied using large datasets such as the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators.