Eligibility Requirements & Exam Information

ABCGN certification is open to registered nurses currently engaged in GI/endoscopy. To qualify for certification or recertification, candidates must meet the following criteria:

By the first day of the testing period (May 1 or October 1), candidates must have been employed in clinical, supervisory, administrative, teaching/education or research capacities in an institutional or private practice setting for a minimum of two (2) years full-time, or its part-time equivalent of 4000 hours, within the past five (5) years in GI/endoscopy.

• Work experience must be as an RN (i.e., an LPN who has become an RN must have two years experience as an RN prior to sitting for the CGRN designation regardless of the number of years of GI experience as an LPN.)
• Full time industry nurses whose focus is at least 40% clinical practice, education, or research are eligible. Those whose focus is sales are not.

• Each candidate is required to submit the contact information of two responsible practitioners in the specialty who can verify his/her work experience and professional qualifications.
• Each candidate is required to provide their unrestricted United States or Canadian Registered Nurse (RN) license number.

This Certification Handbook has been published to help you through the examination process. You can make the process easier for yourself by following these easy steps:

• Discard all previous handbooks and forms.
• Follow all instructions in the handbook carefully.
• Submit your materials online by the appropriate deadline.

ADA Accommodation Requests

ABCGN and Prometric comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and strive to ensure that no individual with a disability is deprived of the opportunity to take the examination solely by reason of that disability. Prometric will provide reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities. Accommodations will be granted for candidates that choose to take their exam at a test center or through remote proctoring, there may be situations where candidates will have to test at a center in order to receive the approved accommodations.

Reasonable accommodations provide candidates with disabilities a fair and equal opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skill in the essential functions being assessed by the examination. Reasonable accommodations are decided based on the individual’s specific request, disability, documentation submitted, and appropriateness of the request. Reasonable accommodations do not include steps that fundamentally alter the purpose or nature of the examination.

Requests for accommodation must be submitted in writing to ABCGN no later than 30 days before the candidate’s preferred testing date, and candidates must submit their scheduling request at least 30 days prior to their preferred test date. It is recommended that this documentation be submitted at least 45 days prior to the preferred testing date

Exam Options

As a candidate you have the option to take your exam either in a Prometric Testing Center (US and Canada) or through a remotely proctored internet enabled private location of your choice where you must provide a computer with a camera, microphone and a stable Internet connection. 
If you are interested in learning more about the Prometric ProProctor program, visit here. Visit Prometric’s website to learn more about the different testing options.

The Examination: There is one ABCGN certification examination for RNs. The examination is based on role delineations -- surveys of practitioners, which define the scope of practice and the knowledge and skills required to function in the field. All examination items are written by certified individuals with expertise in the field of gastroenterology and/or gastroenterology endoscopy nursing practice. ABCGN and Prometric ensure that all items are reviewed for bias and sensitivity prior to assigning any items for scoring.

Test Items (Questions): Test items are reviewed, referenced and validated by the ABCGN Item Writers Committee and, finally, edited by the testing company for construction, grammatical correctness and clarity. Examination Content The CGRN examination each consist of 175 multiple-choice questions. Each question has four choices and one correct answer. Candidates have three hours to complete their examination.

The CGRN examination contains questions from four major content areas: general nursing care, gastroenterological procedures, patient care interventions and environmental safety, infection prevention and control. All questions are directly related to the GI specialty. More specific information regarding the content of the examinations is included in the Appendix of the Certification Handbook.

Preparation for the Examination: ABCGN does not sponsor or endorse test preparation or review courses for the certification examinations. SGNA, ABCGN's sister organization, offers both courses and materials for the exam and recertification. Visit the SGNA website for more details.

Prometric: Prometric is ABCGN's testing partner. It assists ABCGN with test development and provide test delivering and scoring.