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Sign in and go to your profile page. The Certification Maintenance section will include any of your certification(s) currently eligible for maintenance. It will show due date and provide quick links to guide you through the maintenance process.
All CE must relate to your certification specialty area.
The Is My CE Acceptable guide will provide you with a list of specialty topics per certification area. In addition, there is a coding brochure for each core certification specialty that outlines the codes, core competencies and appropriate CE for each. For access to the brochures, return to the Certification Maintenance page.
If the course dealt with any of the topics listed for your certification area, it would count for maintenance. If not, it would not count.
Academic credit can be used to maintain the NCC certification credential. The content of the course must be related to the certification specialty area.
Be specific in listing course titles, ex. course 104 is not acceptable.
Remember content must relate to your specialty certification area.
Those who precept nursing or nurse practitioners students in their certification specialty area can earn 10 contact hours for this activity. You must precept students for at least one academic quarter, semester or entire clinical rotation if less than an academic quarter or semester. To earn the 10 hours, a letter from the sponsoring institution (on official letterhead and signed by the appropriate authorizing person) must be submitted indicating your responsibilities as preceptor and dates and hours of your preceptor time.* If this time is less than 10 hours, this preceptorship time cannot be used for maintenance. 10 hours is the maximum that can be earned for this activity.
*Online submission does not require the upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited.
Precept hours can only be used for baseline hours, not hours designated in the education plan assigned to a specific competency area. Baseline hours are listed as hours that are assigned to any competency area and appear at the bottom of your education plan.
Those 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 of the individual certified nurse or NP's current job responsibilities and cannot be an expectation 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 certification period, even if it is presented multiple times.
You will have to estimate the hours for each code. For example, if the program covered 3 codes and was worth 12 hours, you can assign 4 hours for each code or you can estimate the time for each code by assessing the amount of time devoted to the content related to an individual code.
For generic courses, the course has to relate to the population focus of the certification area. A course on hypertension in pregnancy could not be used to maintain neonatal certifications but would be acceptable for maintaining WHNP certification.
For specialty focused conventions like AWHONN or NANN, use the specialty code that represents the specialty area of most of the presentations attended or if specific specialty content is needed, record only the sessions/presentations that are associated with that code and the corresponding hours.
For mixed population focused activities, record only those hours that apply to the population focus of the certification area. For example, If a physical exam course is taken that is neonatal and pediatric-focused, only the hours for neonatal content could be used for maintenance of the NNP certification. The number of hours in the CE activity would have to be estimated that were devoted to neonatal content.
You must have a current unrestricted license in order to maintain. If your license is inactive, you cannot meet the maintenance requirements and your certification will lapse.
Yes, you can maintain. There are no employment requirements to maintain your certification.
If you cannot earn enough continuing education credit or retake the examination prior to your expiration date, you can request a one time only three-month extension for your core certification or subspecialty certificate.
This request must be received before your expiration date and requires a $30 service fee. This extends only your time to file and does not change your next expiration date. This is a one time option only. There are no refunds for extension requests.
For those who missed the maintenance filing deadline, you can reinstate without retesting.
The reinstatement program allows individuals to come back into the system without retesting up to one year following their original expiration date.
You must file an online reinstatement application and pay the reinstatement fee ($215 for core certifications, $145 for subspecialty certifications).
Begin reinstatement of credential application
Purchasing and completing NCC CE modules does not automatically maintain your certification. In addition to earning CE either through NCC or other providers, you must file a maintenance application and pay a maintenance fee.
If you believe that your payment was made, please forward a copy of your canceled check or credit card payment showing payment to contact us. With this information, we can further investigate the matter.
Modules are automatically posted to your maintenance application when successfully completed. You cannot manually enter them. If they are not posted, it could be you used a module that was not within your core competency specialty areas or completed the module prior to the beginning of your maintenance cycle. Only modules assigned with a code for your certification specialty and as specified by your education plan can be used.
NCC modules are assigned codes and are noted in the module description. You can only use an NCC module for maintenance that has an assigned specialty code for your certification specialty and specified by your education plan.
Modules are automatically posted to your maintenance application when successfully completed. You cannot manually enter them. If they are not posted, it could be you used a module that was not within your core competency specialty areas or completed the module prior to the beginning of your maintenance cycle. Only modules assigned with a code for your certification specialty and as specified by your education plan can be used.
The website will save your entries and you may continue to make updates as long as you don't submit your application.
This is most likely because the activities are not in the time frame for your certification. You can only use CE for core certifications (RNC or NP-BC credentials) that are earned after you have taken the assessment.
If you are maintaining more than one NCC certification and/or a subspecialty certificate, you must submit a separate application and fee for each certification/certificate. There is a separate application for maintaining subspecialty certificates. If applicable, you may use the same continuing education credit for multiple certifications.
You may file at any time up to one year prior to your maintenance due date. You do not have to wait for your specific maintenance due date to file. Two caveats apply to filing early:
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NCC randomly selects for audit a percentage of credentialed professionals who are due to maintain their certification. All incomplete applications are automatically selected for audit. An audit requires the credentialed individual to submit copies of the program agenda with lecture descriptions or the lecture description along with certificates of continuing education being used for the purposes of maintenance. In addition, the audit requires a license or license verification upload that shows the current expiration date. NCC CE is automatically applied to your applications and does not require uploads. The notice of audit may come with your notice that your certification is due or you may be subject to an audit after you have submitted your certification maintenance application. If selected for audit and you fail to provide continuing education certificates and the program/lecture descriptions or fail to meet the deadline to submit additional documentation that would complete your application, your certification will lapse. The audit provides you with a two week window to submit the required documents. Please note that it is your responsibility to insure all contact information is current in your account so that you receive audit information.
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Maintenance cards and certificates are both available for download from your profile at no cost. Official documentation is available for a fee. Documents can only be delivered to a street address—no PO Boxes or military addresses. There are no refunds on maintenance cards or certificates.
Replacement maintenance card - $35
Replacement certificate - $20
For those seeking a replacement for CE modules, please check your CE History and download it from there.
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You can now send press releases to those you wish to inform of successful achievement or maintenance of your NCC credential. This is an excellent way to let your colleagues, supervisor, mentors or other leadership in your institution know of your accomplishment.
You can initiate the press release from your profile at any time but should do so only after you have received official notification that you have successfully completed the certification or certification maintenance process.
This is not a substitute for primary source verifications and you can always download official documentation of your certification or certificate of added qualification from your account.
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If you need a receipt for any purchase made through the NCC website view order history in your profile. All of your purchases are kept together in an easy-to-access format for you to view or print at any time. Simply click on a line item to view details and print a receipt.