The CMC Certification Process: How To Become a Certified Cardiac Nurse

If you’re ready to become a Certified Cardiac Nurse, then this is the best guide for you. I’ll explain everything about CMC certification. You’ll learn what it is, what the eligibility requirements are, and how to pass the test.

What is The Cardiac Medicine Certification (CMC)?

The CMC certification is a specialty certification for nurses caring for acutely/critically ill adult cardiac medicine patients.

You must be providing direct patient care to cardiac patients, are a nurse practitioner, educator, preceptor, manager, or are supervising nursing students caring for this specific patient population.

Once you take and pass the exam, you can add “CMC” to the end of your credentials. However, it’s a certification that must be attached to another certification (like CCRN, PCCN, or CCNS).

For example Jane Doe, BSN RN CCRN CMC

It’s always a great thing to add letters behind your name!

Eligibility Requirements for CMC Certification

To be eligible for CMC certification, you must have an unencumbered nursing license – meaning not under and disciplinary actions and it’s a current license.

You have to ALREADY have another certification like the CCRN, PCCN or CCNS. This is a specialty certification that you add to another certification. You cannot get this all by itself.

If you don’t already have another certification, check out this blog post about getting your CCRN.

You also need to have some practice hours caring for acutely/critically ill adult cardiac medicine patients to be able to sit for the exam.

Specifically, you need 1,750 hours as an RN or APRN OR be an RN or APRN with 5 years of experience and a minimum of 2,000 hours with 144 of those hours in the most recent year.

Please keep in mind that these hours must be verifiable by someone else. You’ll be required to list someone who can verify that you do work in an approved area.

These requirements are all directly from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), who write the exam and provide the certification itself. If you’re not sure if you’re eligible or if the area you work in counts, you can always ask your educator or manager directly… or even contact the AACN.

I’ve had my CCRN since 2015 and have had to contact them a few times and they’re always easy to get a hold of, responsive, and kind. When in doubt, reach out.

How to Sit For The CMC Exam

Before you sit down at the exam, you have to get approved.

This means filling out the application on the AACN’s website (you’ll have to create an account first if you don’t already have one). Part of this application is providing the name and contact information of a colleague or manager who can verify your eligibility to sit for the CMC.

You’ll need to provide some demographic information as well as sign an honor statement.

You’ll submit your application and wait for approval. This typically takes about 2-4 weeks. Once all that information is processed, they’ll contact you (via email and postcard) to let you know that you’re good to go!

After you receive your approval notification, you have 90 days to schedule your exam.

Essentially, you only want to start this process if you know you want to test and have already started studying.

What Score Do You Need to Pass the CMC Certification Exam?

This information comes directly from the exam handbook.

The exam is a total of 90 questions, with 15 of them not counting towards the final score. You’ve got two hours to take the exam.

To pass the CMC, you must get at least 52 questions out of the score 75 questions correct. This translates to getting approximately 69% of the answers correct.

Pro-Tip! Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nicole Kupchik, recommends, “If you come across a question that you have NO idea the answer, tell yourself it’s a question that doesn’t count! Don’t psych yourself out if you don’t know the answer. There will be some questions that you’re aren’t completely sure about!”. (Source: Ace the CMC®: You Can Do It!Ace the CMC®: You Can Do It! by Nicole Kupchik, pages xi-xii)

What’s On the CMC Certification Exam?

Again, this information comes directly from the AACN and is the exam blueprint (page 10).

1. Cardiovascular patient care is 43% of the CMC exam. This includes caring for patients with acute coronary syndrome, dysrhythmias, heart failure, vascular issues, and other cardiac issues and complications (like tamponade, pericardial effusion, pulmonary edema, sudden cardiac death, and more).
2. Other patient care problems are 19% of the CMC exam. This includes pulmonary issues, diabetes, hematology/immunology, neurology, renal, multisystem, and behavioral issues.
3. Therapeutic interventions consist of 23% of the exam. This touches on intra-aortic balloon pumps, various cardiac and vascular procedures (caths, grafts, PCI and stents, pericardiocentesis), the pharmacology of cardiovascular meds, pacemakers, ablations, cardioversions, defibrillation, AICDs, and more.
4. Finally, monitoring and diagnostics consist of 16% of the exam. This includes various labs (ABGs, BNP, creatinine, electrolytes – HELLO POTASSIUM), ECGs, echocardiograms, CVP, PA catheters, stress testing, pulse oximetry, end-tidal CO2, and more.

If you wanted to get a little preview of what the test questions are like, page 11 of the exam blueprint has eight of them.

How Do I know if I Passed the CMC Exam?

It’s not like the NCLEX where you have to wait for a while or pay to find out earlier. You will find out immediately after the exam whether or not you passed.

What’s the Renewal Process Like for the CMC Certification?

The certification lasts three (3) years. You can either retake the exam after three years, or you can renew it with something called CERPs.

CERPs are continuing education recognition points and are unique to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). The AACN offers a ton (I mean, so so so many) different continuing education opportunities in various forms on a wide array of categories.

Category A	Category B	Category C
Clinical judgment   Clinical inquiry	Caring practices   Response to diversity Advocacy/Moral agency Facilitation of learning	Collaboration   Systems thinking

They do that so people who renew their certifications aren’t getting a ton of hours in one very specific category. It wouldn’t be helpful to renew a CCRN (the critical care certification) with all of your hours on advocacy and nothing on the latest evidence related to patient care.

Basically, to renew this certification you need to get 25 CERPs from Category A under clinical judgment pertaining to cardiac medicine over the course of 3 years.

As an AACN-certified nurse who has had to report CERPs before, the AACN website is really straightforward in calculating these even though it sounds confusing at first glance. You can report and record all of your hours there, and if you take them through the AACN’s website directly (or go to one of their conferences like NTI), it auto-populates for you into your profile.

You just log in and click on “Transcripts” in your profile and it shows you your total CERP count and how many you have for each category.

See below to check out my profile:

Study Materials for the CMC Exam

If you want to get started studying for the exam, first ask yourself if you want to just get a review book and practice questions or have a full online course review.

For a standalone book with a review and 100 practice questions with rationale, check out this one. (And next time you’re at the AACN’s annual critical care conference, NTI, make sure you look for the author, Nicole Kupchik, as she is often a featured speaker!).

If you just want an online course, here is one that will provide 6.0 CE’s, a downloadable PDF study guide, and follows the exam blueprint. (Please note, the course by itself does not have practice questions.)

If you want both and would like to save a little cash, you can bundle the course and book and save about $20.

If you need some cardiac basics first

More CCRN Resources

Now that you know everything you need to know about CMC certification, here is even more information about critical-care nursing.

• Ultimate List of CCRN Prep Courses and Books
• Top Tips for New Grad Nurses in ICU
• Essential Interview Tips to Become an ICU Nurse
• National Nursing Certifications Podcast Episode