Documentation of 15 Contact Hours

Looking for suggestions for contact hour agencies? Need to calculate CMEs or CEUs to contact hours? Scroll down to find out more about this Recertification option.

Basic Guidelines:

What is the difference between continuing education and contact hours? Contact hours are earned for attending continuing education. Continuing education includes lectures, presentations, seminars, conferences, online education, grand rounds, journal CE, in-services, etc. that you attend as a learning exercise. One contact hour is equivalent to a 60-minute educational program. Organizations that offer contact hours must apply to an accrediting agency to award contact hours.

• Contact hours must be in content areas relevant to pediatric nursing or professional growth and development in nursing.
• Contact hours must be awarded by our approved list below.
• Contact hours must have been earned within the past 24 months prior to submission of your Recertification enrollment.
• Contact hours earned through a previous PNCB Standards Assessment Exam (SAE) taken for Recertification cannot be used for this option.

On your online Recert application, you'll need to share the following with us:

Program Name
Dates Attended
Contact Hours
Accrediting Agency

Eleven sections are available on your online Recert application, should you need that many to add up to 10.

Which contact hour agencies are accepted?

Contact hours from credentialing programs such as the American Heart Association's (AHA) or Emergency Nurses Association's (ENA) — PALS, Advanced Pediatric/Cardiac/Trauma Life Support, Basic Trauma Life Support, or the Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course (ENPC) — are applicable only when earned from the initial course/certification.

Contact hours must be awarded by:

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA)
• American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN)
• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
• American Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) - Category 1 (AMA)
• American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Association for Woman's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
• Center for Disease Control (CDC)
• Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)
• International Board of Lactation Consultants (IBLC)
• National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN)
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
• National League for Nursing (NLN)
• Nurse Practitioner Associates for Continuing Education (NPACE)
• State Nurses Associations/State Boards of Nursing (SNA/SBN)
• Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)

Can I use the contact hours earned from SAEs?

If a PNCB SAE was used as a previous Recertification activity, the contact hours earned by completing the SAE for Recertification cannot be used for a contact hours option for another PNCB Recertification year. Feel free to use these contact hours earned for a state board of nursing or employer.

Do you need to see documentation?

Please do not mail us copies of your documentation. We'll only need to see these certificates if you are selected in our annual random audit. When you fill out your online or paper application, you will attest that the information you submitted is true.

Calculating Contact Hours

Continuing Education as CE, CME, CNE, etc. is awarded from an accredited provider and is typically 1 credit or contact hour equivalent to a 60-minute educational program.