5/19/09 –The Commission on Accreditation decided that contact hours for BLS and other basic "canned" courses may not be awarded. Any courses currently being presented (by either accredited providers or approved providers) must cease to award contact hours by June 1, 2011.
The Commission also decided that contact hours for renewal of ACLS, PALS and other advanced "canned" courses may not be awarded. Any courses currently being presented (by either accredited providers or approved providers) must cease to award contact hours by June 1, 2011.
Awarding contact hours for initial ACLS, PALS and other advanced "canned" courses is still permitted.
Rationale:
BLS is no longer an augment to the nurse’s basic knowledge. Therefore it doesn’t meet the definition of continuing nursing education. Universities now require the student to be certified in BLS before ever entering the academic program. BLS is not an augmentation of knowledge, it is a basic preparation for training.
The advanced life support activities meet the definition of cne because they are not included in the nurse’s basic training and therefore augment that training. However, these courses do not change often or significantly. Therefore, renewal of certification is meant to validate that the knowledge previously obtained has been retained. It does not augment that knowledge.
4/1/09: The accreditation statements found in the 2009 Accreditation Application manual read, "....by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's COA". No substantive change may be made to this statement. It is acceptable (it is NOT a substantive change) to 'spell out' the acronym, COA. It is acceptable to state, "...by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation".
3/20/07: Many people have questioned the use of and difference between the terms co-providership and sponsorship or co-sponsorship. The 2006 manual is not helpful in this regard. Please see the definitions below. Thank you.
Co-Providership: Planning, developing, and implementing an educational activity by two or more organizations or agencies. ANCC Accreditation criteria requires that the accredited organization be responsible for particular aspects of the process to assure adherence to all the ANCC criteria. A written co-provider agreement is completed.
Sponsorship: Support (monetary or 'in kind') furnished to the provider of the education activity. Sponsorship must be acknowledged to learners. A written agreement is completed. When an educational activity is supported by more than one entity, each entity is a co-sponsor. Sponsors and co-sponsors do NOT participate in planning, developing and implementing the educational activity.
11/29/06: The Commission on Accreditation moved to allow ANCC contact hours to be awarded for the teaching modality content only of the classroom based BLS Instructor course. Note that this does not include the BLS content portion of the course. In addition, accredited providers and approved providers cannot award ANCC contact hours for the course offered online or on CD ROM by AHA as these formats preclude the involvement of the accredited/approved continuing education unit in the planning or implementation of the activity.
6/13/06: It continues to be the position of the Commission on Accreditation that the determination of an appropriate number of contact hours may not be reached by "rounding" up. This would imply that the learner attended more hours of continuing nursing education that s/he actually did. This is not permissible. Contact hours may be awarded in increments.
4/10/06: When an activity for which approval is requested is 20 hours or greater, the applicant is required to submit to the accredited approver documentation for only three contact hours of the activity. The applicant is expected to maintain documentation for the full activity.
2/27/06: At its meeting on February 27, 2006, the Commission on Accreditation clarified that contact hours may not be awarded for BLS Instructor courses.
12/14/05: The accreditation and approval statements must be exactly as written in the Accreditation Program manual. No additional statements may be attached to the accreditation statement as provided in the Accreditation Program manual. If a provider would like to say that another agency has approved the activity, do so with a separate statement.
Formal complaints can be, have been, and continue to be, lodged against organizations where incorrect statements are used. As the Accreditation Program processes and decisions become more outcome-focused and evidence-based, the presence of complaints in an organization's file may, in the near future, result in additional requirements or documentation at the time of re-accreditation. We would all like to avoid that.
11/18/05: At a monthly meeting of the Commission on Accreditation, the Commission voted to remove the limitation of one contact hour minimum. Contact hours may now be awarded in portions. For example, 100 minutes of learning activity equals 2.0 contact hours or a learning activity that consists of 25 minutes equals 0.5 contact hours.
11/11/05: The Commission on Accreditation decided at its May 2005 meeting that contact hours may be offered to nurses for certification renewal in advanced skills areas such as, but not limited to, ACLS and PALS. Certification renewal in the basic skills areas such as BLS, for example, is still not considered appropriate for contact hours.
10/21/05: It is the intent of the Commission on Accreditation that all continuing nursing education maintain its independence and freedom from bias. Therefore, everyone associated with the continuing nursing education activity in a capacity that might enable bias to enter into the activity must declare vested interests. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, presenters (as indicated in Operational Requirement #10), planning committee members, and anyone else in a position to introduce bias into the content and presentation of the continuing nursing education activity. While this broadens the specific language used in Operational Requirement #10, this is consistent with the intent of the requirement.