Other educational activities and recognized accrediting agencies

Preceptorship hours

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Those RNCs or certified NPs who precept nurses 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 obtained indicating your responsibilities as preceptor and dates and hours of your preceptor time.  This letter should be kept on file if your application is 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.  

You can only use these hours for baseline hours and 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 plan. 

How to List Your Preceptorship Activities

Program/activity: Preceptor of students for University of Massachusetts clinical rotation in obstetrics
Date of program: 12/31/14 (list the date when you finished precepting.)
Number of hours: maximum that can be used is 10 hours
Sponsoring/accrediting organization: University of Massachusetts
Specialty code that matches preceptorship: Code 24

Making CE presentations

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RNCs or certified NPs who present/teach accredited continuing education programs can apply the same number of hours of CE toward their own certification maintenance as was awarded to the participants who completed the program.  

CE recognized for this option can only be applied to any baseline CE requirement in the current Education Plan and is limited to a total of 15 CE hours or the maximum of baseline hours assigned in the education plan. This activity must be outside the individual RNC's or certified NP's expected job responsibilities in their current position.  

CE based on this option is only available for one course or program presentation per maintenance cycle even if the same content is presented multiple times.

Writing books/journal articles

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• are the primary or secondary author of a book
• are editor of a book
• have authored a book chapter
• have authored a journal article

• 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.
• To establish authorship of a primary or secondary book chapter - you must have pages from the book that identifies the title, your name as the author and publication date*
• To establish authorship of a journal article - you must have a copy of the title page of the article with your name as author and the publication date.*

*Online submission does not require the upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited.

You can only use these hours for baseline hours and 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 plan. 

Credit for NCC activities

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NCC CE Module reviewer or author

10 hours of continuing education will be awarded to those RNCs or certified NPs who serve as reviewers or writers of an NCC CE module or monograph. This CE is awarded in the same specialty code as the NCC CE module that was written or reviewed. You are limited to earning a maximum of 10 hours of continuing education as an NCC CE module reviewer or monograph author per certification maintenance cycle. A copy of the continuing education certificate issued by NCC indicating your reviewer/writer role should be kept for submission in the event of an audit.

NCC CE module user

NCC CE modules can be used to meet content and specialty hour requirements. Credits for each module vary. In addition, the use of NCC modules may also reduce the maintenance fee payable.

Content Team

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Members of the NCC content teams receive 5 CE once every 3 years after the first year of participation on the Content Team. This CE certificate is only valid for the maintenance of NCC certification and can only be used once in a maintenance cycle.  Enter the 5 CE in your maintenance application, for accreditor, use the word "Volunteer" and assign a code of your choosing. Use of this CE expires at 11:59 CST on the maintenance due date.  The CE certificate must be uploaded to the maintenance application.  It can be found in your Vtopia account. 

Academic credit

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Academic credit is accepted.  The content of academic courses must relate to your education plan and your certification core competencies.  Academic credit must follow the same rules of any CE activity:

• it must relate to your education plan
• it must be earned after you have taken the assessment

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:

Recognized accrediting organizations for continuing education credit

• NCC
• State boards of nursing
• State nursing associations
• Nursing, medical or health care organizations (this would include, for example, such organizations as: ANCC, ANN, AWHONN, NPWH, NANN, ACOG, AMA, AAP, etc.)
• Colleges or universities

• 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 healthcare 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 the upload of documentation, but you will need to produce if audited.)

Academic credit must meet the same criteria as CE.   All coursework has to be related to the certification specialty area and in accordance with your education plan.