Background: Currently in Brazil, the nursing workforce consists of 541,903 registered nurses and 1,536,505 technicians and assistants. The most extensive survey on a professional category ever undertaken in Latin America is unprecedented and covers a universe of 2,078,772 professionals. The diversity in the distribution and development of nursing professionals, impact on the safety and quality of care offered to users of different health services all over the country. The program aims to improve quality care and assist the nursing team by defining roles and actions within the organizational structure.

Method: The nursing certification consists of an evaluation of the work environment, identification of the nursing position in the organizational structure and the results of care. We used the work environment assessment for this diagnosis. Through the knowledge trail, we structure the nurse’s development. Repositioning nurses within the dependent, independent and interdependent domains in the elaboration of the care plan. Finally, we evaluated the impact on the organization results through indicators directly related to nursing. The project has six phases distributed in eighteen months and indicators that evaluate the organization performance.

Conclusion: The certification provides experience validation, knowledge and skills of nursing professionals. It supports continuing education and develops the clinical skills that are conducive to job satisfaction among nursing professionals. The certification process seeks to identify nurses as a profession; recognize signs of oppressive group behavior and discuss strategies to strengthen ourselves as individual and interdisciplinary work. The certification includes benefits for the country, such as the increase in national competitiveness provided by the improvement in the quality of health services. For professionals, certification is the recognition that they are technically qualified, committed to the quality of health services and able to cope with the risks of their activity and the job market. For patients in the reduce inefficiencies in care.