Documentation of 5 Contact Hours & 200 Clinical Practice Hours

May be selected for 6 years of your 7-year cycle

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.

All About Clinical Practice Hours

What do you mean by clinical practice hours? Clinical practice hours are work or volunteer hours that involve the direct "hands-on" assessment or clinical management of pediatric patients.

What is the difference between continuing education and contact hours? Continuing education includes lectures, seminars, conferences, online education, grand rounds, etc. that you attend as a learning exercise. Contact hours can be earned for attending a continuing education course. Typically 1 contact hour is equivalent to a 60-minute educational program. Organizations that offer continuing education must apply to an accrediting agency to award contact hours.

The following guidelines apply:

• The clinical practice must have occurred within the past year (12 months).
• A minimum of 200 hours of direct clinical practice is required.
• All clinical practice requirements must have been met while the CPN® held an active registered nurse license in the state or territory in which the clinical practice occurred.
• Clinical practice hours should reflect direct "hands-on" assessment and clinical management of children. Practice time does not include the management, supervision or education of other personnel or students to help achieve patient care goals.
• Clinical practice hours may be volunteer time spent providing direct pediatric nursing care.
  

How will I document these hours on my online Recert enrollment? You'll simply fill in the following fields:

Clinical Practice Dates
Number of Practice Hours
Clinical Practice Setting (Choose from Children's Hospital, Community Hospital, or Other)
Zip Code of Clinical Practice Setting

For example, a CPN working 30 hours per week from 11/08 to 11/09 in a school-based setting might fill in the fields like this:

Clinical Practice Dates: 11/08 to 11/09
Number of Practice Hours: 1560
Clinical Practice Setting: (Selects Other from the menu)
Zip Code of Clinical Practice Setting: 20877

All about Contact Hours and Academic Credit

What is the difference between continuing education and contact hours? Continuing education includes lectures, seminars, conferences, online education, grand rounds, etc. that you attend as a learning exercise. Contact hours can be earned for attending a continuing education course. Typically 1 contact hour is equivalent to a 60-minute educational program. Organizations that offer continuing education must apply to an accrediting agency to award contact hours.

• Contact hours or coursework must be in content areas relevant to pediatric nursing or professional growth and development in nursing.
• Contact hours can come from a variety of agencies/providers.
• Contact hours may be provided by employers or state boards, and may be awarded from other health disciplines, such as social work and physical therapy, if applicable to pediatrics.
• CE or CME from journals, conferences, in-services, presentations, and grand rounds are all valid.
• Contact hours earned through a previous PNCB Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE) taken for Recertification cannot be used for this option.
• Academic credit course work must be successfully completed.
• Academic credit or contact hours can't be the same as reported in a previous year.
• Academic credit or contact hours must be earned within 24 months of submission of Recertification enrollment.

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

Program Name
Dates Attended
Contact Hours

Eleven sections are available for you on your online Recert application, should you need that many.

Which contact hour agencies are accepted?

We've listed examples below, but this isn't a complete list. Basically, if the contact hours you earn are applicable to pediatrics, you may use it.

Contact hours from credentialing programs such as PALS, Advanced Pediatric/Cardiac/Trauma Life Support, Basic Trauma Life Support, or the Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course are only applicable when earned from the initial course.

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• 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
• Center for Disease Control (CDC)
• Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)
• Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course (ENPC) 5 contact hours only accepted
• International Board of Lactation Consultants (IBLC)
• National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN)
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)
• National League for Nursing (NLN)
• Nurse Practitioner Associates for Continuing Education (NPACE)
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) - Only from the intial course
• 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 or fax 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.