Documentation of 10 Contact Hours
or 1 Academic Credit

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.

Basic Guidelines:

Please read the following to help you determine acceptable content for this CPN® Recertification option.

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

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)
• 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)
• 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.