Other recognized educational activities
Preceptorship hours
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Those RNCs or certified NPs who precept nursing or nurse practitioners in their NCC certification specialty area can earn a maximum of 10 hours of continuing education for this activity each maintenance cycle. You must precept students for at least one academic quarter, semester or entire clinical rotation. A letter from the sponsoring institution (on official letterhead and signed by the appropriate authorizing person) must be submitted with your maintenance application indicating your responsibilities as preceptor and dates and hours of your preceptor time. (online submission does not require upload of letter, but you will need to produce if audited) If this time is less than 10 hours, this preceptorship time cannot be used for maintenance. This option does not apply to orienting new staff to your workplace.
Making CE presentations
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RNCs or certified NPs who present continuing education programs can use the same amount of credit awarded to the participants attending the presentation to maintain their certification. This activity must be outside the individual RNC’s or certified NP’s current job responsibilities and cannot be expected of their current position. Programs presented must earn credit within NCC guidelines. Any given presentation of the same program can be used only once during an individual's certification period, even if it is presented multiple times.
Writing books/journal articles
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5 hours of continuing education will be awarded to those RNCs or certified NPs who have written a journal article or a chapter of a book.
15 hours of continuing education will be awarded to those RNCs or certified NPs who are a primary or secondary author of a book.
- The publication date of the article/ book/module will determine its applicability for your current certification maintenance.
- You are limited to using one article or book authorship per certification maintenance cycle.
- Articles/books must be related to the certification specialty area.
- Proof of authorship can be established by including a copy of the title page of the article with the title of the article, your name as author and the publication date.*
- For primary or secondary book authorship, pages from the book that identify the title, author and publication date must be submitted.*
*Online submission does not require upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited.
Credit for NCC activities
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NCC self assessment reviewer or author
10 hours of continuing education will be awarded to those RNCs or certified NPs who serve as reviewers or writers of a self assessment module or monograph. You are limited to earning a maximum of 10 hours of continuing education as an NCC Self Assessment reviewer or monograph author per certification maintenance cycle. Self assessment reviewers or monograph writers must submit a copy of your continuing education certificate issued by NCC indicating your reviewer/writer role. (Online submission does not require upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited).
NCC self assessment module user
NCC self assessment modules can be used for meeting content and specialty hour requirements. Credits for each module vary. In addition, the use of NCC modules may also reduce the maintenance fee payable.
Item writing
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Those who successfully submit a test item that can be used for an NCC exam can earn 1 CE hour per item up to 10 maximum during any maintenance cycle. Review the NCC Item Writing Tutorial.
Academic credit
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Recognized sponsoring organizations for continuing education credit
Academic credit is accepted as is CME credit. For continuing education credit to be accepted for the purpose of maintenance, the continuing education activity must be accredited by one of the agencies below.
- NCC
- State boards of nursing
- State nursing associations
- Nursing, medical or health care organizations (this would include, for example, such organizations as: AWHONN, NPWH, NANN, ACOG, AMA etc.)
- Colleges or universities
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For profit or not-for-profit continuing education organizations such as Contemporary Forums, Western Schools, Professional Education Consultants, etc. provided that programs sponsored by such organizations have been accredited for continuing education.
Most of the for-profit organizations have achieved accreditation for their offering through a state board of nursing or health care organization. Review accreditation details in the registration brochure you received when registering for the particular continuing education activity.
Conversion formulas for hours of continuing education
Academic credit
(U.S. and Canadian institutions only)
- 1 quarter hour = 10 hours of continuing education
- 1 semester hour = 15 hours of continuing education
Other
- 1 CEU = 10 hours of continuing education
- 1 AMA Category 1 hour = 1 hour of continuing education
- 1 CME = 1 hour of continuing education
- CEARP = 1 hour of continuing education
- ACOG cognate = 1 hour of continuing education
For other designations, contact the CE provider for conversion translation of their accredited hours.
All continuing education programs must be accredited and provide evidence of such in the form of a certificate of completion issued to participants. (Online submission does not require upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited.)
Academic credit must meet the same criteria as CE. All course work has to be related to the certification specialty area.