Continuing Education Requirements

Policy Statement/Procedure:

Nurse Practitioner Rule 21 NCAC 36.0807  states to maintain Nurse Practitioner approval to practice, the Nurse Practitioner shall earn 50 contact hours of continuing education each year beginning with the first *renewal cycle after initial approval to practice has been granted. At least 20 hours of the required 50 hours must be those hours for which approval has been granted by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) or other national credentialing bodies or **practice relevant courses in an institution of higher learning. Nurse Practitioners may choose to obtain formal continuing education credits from the above bodies for the full 50 hours, or they may choose to complete the following activities for all or any part of the 30 hours that do not have to meet the formal criteria.

Included as a part of the annual, total 50 contact hours of continuing education is the requirement for one contact hour of continuing education required only for those Nurse Practitioners who prescribe controlled substances. This continuing education shall address controlled substance prescribing practices, signs of the abuse or misuse of controlled substances, and controlled substance prescribing for chronic pain management.

*Nurse Practitioner Renewal Cycle (birth month to birth month) - Example:

• Birth month: June
• Nurse Practitioner Renewal Cycle for 2017-2018 for licensee with the birth month of June: July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2018

**Note: Practice relevant courses in an institution of higher learning

• Only those courses completed during your current Nurse Practitioner renewal cycle** (birth month to birth month) can be counted.
• The conversion for credit to contact hours are:
• One semester credit = 15 contact hours
• One quarter credit = 7.5 contact hours

For the activities below to count toward the current Nurse Practitioner renewal cycle, they must be completed within the current Nurse Practitioner renewal cycle (birth month to birth month). Any activity completed outside of the current Nurse Practitioner renewal cycle, cannot be applied to the current renewal cycle.

Activity	Example	Acceptable Evidence
Five (5) hours - Clinical Presentations Note: Licensees may not earn contact hours for their own presentations in conferences or in the performance of their normal employment obligations.	Designing, developing and conducting an educational presentation or presentations for health professionals totaling a minimum of 5 contact hours	Dated copy of presentation(s)
Up to 30 Preceptor hours	Precepting any Interprofessional healthcare student	Original letter from the program director stating the following: Timeframe precepted said student Number of hours precepted student
Five (5) hours - author on a journal article or book chapter published during renewal year	Professional journal article (both refereed and non-refereed publications are acceptable) Published book chapter	Reference for published work Copy of title page
Five (15) hours - primary or secondary author of a book published during renewal year	Author or Editor of published book	Reference for published work Copy of title page
Ten (10) hours - Completion of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved research project related to your certification specialty	Completion of an IRB-approved research project for which you were the primary investigator	IRB close-out letter
Five (5) hours - Professional volunteer service	Local, state, national or international health care related organization in which your NP or certification specialty expertise is required Examples: employer, community or profession-specific board of director; committees; task forces; editorial boards; review boards	Signed/dated attestation from manager or committee chair