ABSTRACT
Competency standards for nurses who specialize in the care of burn-injured patients are lacking. Currently, there are no nationally agreed on standards that define safe and competent burn nursing practice. In 2014, nurse members of the American Burn Association proposed the Burn Nurse Competency Initiative (BNCI) with the intent of establishing a core set of competency standards for burn nursing. The BNCI used the Delphi technique of consensus building with input from up to 178 registered nurse burn care experts. This article describes the multistaged consensus-building process used and provides a final list of competencies. These newly created competencies now define professional practice standards for burn nurses. Their creation completes one of the essential steps required for burn nursing to be recognized as a specialty.
