Recognizing Expertise In Hemophilia Nursing

This article was originally published in our Fall 2026 Bleeding Times Magazine. See the entire magazine by clicking here.

Author: Joe Stanco, DNP, FNP-BC, HT-ACN, CPI

For decades, people with bleeding disorders have relied on nurses with highly specialized knowledge. Yet until now, those nurses have never had a national professional nursing organization dedicated to their specialty.

I am a family nurse practitioner at Northwell Health’s Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center (HTC) in New York, where I care for patients across the lifespan, manage complex treatments, provide education, and help people navigate life with a bleeding disorder. I also serve as CEO and President of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Nursing Association (HTNA)–a national organization we recently created to support and advance nurses working in hemostasis and thrombosis.

The idea for launching HTNA grew out of an effort to restore specialty certification for nurses in our field. Certification helps recognize nurses who have developed focused expertise in a particular specialty. HTC nurses previously had access to a specialty certification credential, but it was discontinued in 2017 after only two years. As we began exploring how to bring certification back, we uncovered a larger issue: unlike many other nursing specialties, we had no national professional organization to provide the structure needed to establish standards and sustain certification. That realization led me to bring together a group of dedicated nurses from across the country to launch HTNA.

HTNA is now developing the first Scope and Standards of Practice for hemostasis and thrombosis nursing. National standards matter. Whether a patient receives care in New York or anywhere else in the country, specialty nursing practice should be grounded in clearly defined expectations for knowledge, quality, safety, and professional practice.

We are also creating two portfolio-based certifications: HT-CN for registered nurses and HT-ACN for nurse practitioners. We are targeting late 2026 for the first certification cohort. As these credentials become available, patients and families may begin to see HT-CN or HT-ACN after a nurse’s name. They can ask their nurses about their involvement in HTNA and other specialty education and professional development. These conversations can help patients better understand the expertise of the nurses who are part of their care team. While certification is an important part of HTNA’s work, it is not the end goal. HTNA is also working to build a full ecosystem including education, mentorship, and leadership development for nurses.

For patients, this is about far more than nurses earning additional letters after their names. It is about strengthening and recognizing the specialty expertise that patients and families rely on every day. Hemostasis and thrombosis nurses help people understand treatment options, recognize and respond to bleeding, prepare for procedures, coordinate care, identify complications, and navigate increasingly complex therapies. For many patients and families, their nurse is the first person they reach out to when something goes wrong or they need guidance. HTNA was created to ensure that their expertise is not only honored, but strengthened, sustained, and passed forward for the future.

Learn more about HTNA at: www.htnursing.org.