Documentation of 5 Contact Hours & Clinical Practice Hours

May be selected for 3 years of your 7-year cycle

Dually certified CPNPs® may document 5 acute care pediatric-related contact hours in combination with clinical practice. Scroll down to learn more about each component of this combined documentation option.

Contact Hours Component:

The same policies apply for 5 contact hours as for the 10 contact hour option. For acceptable content, agencies, and more, click here.

Clinical Practice Hours Component:

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. The following guidelines apply:

• The clinical practice must have occurred within the past 12 months prior to submission of your Recertification enrollment.
• A minimum of 200 hours of direct acute care clinical practice is required.
• All clinical practice requirements must have been met while the CPNP® held an active PNP license or authorization in the state or territory in which the acute care 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 acute care 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 CPNP working 30 hours per week from 11/08 to 11/09 in a children's hospital might fill in the fields like this:

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