Continuing Education Program Approval Guidelines

The Maryland Nurses Association (MNA) is accredited as an approver of continuing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Commission on Accreditation (COA). The ANCC COA accreditation signifies that educational activities approved by MNA meet national standards for quality continuing nursing education.

Continuing Education, according to ANCC, is an activity designed to "enrich the nurse's contributions to quality health care and pursuit of professional career goals". Continuing education does NOT include activities intended to assist the participant to acquire, maintain, and/or increase the level of competence in fulfilling...assigned responsibilities SPECIFIC to the expectations of the employer.

As of January 1, 2007, ANCC criteria have been updated.

Changes to previous ANCC Criteria:

1.   The contact hour is changed from a 50 minute hour to a 60 minute hour. 1.0 contact hour will now be issued for activities that are 60 minutes in length, rather than the previous ratio of 1.0 contact hour for a 50-minute activity.

2.   If an activity is more than 20contact hours (1200 minutes), documentation for only 3 contact hours may be submitted for activity approval.

3.   The interpretation of provider-directed and learner-directed activities has changed; there is no longer a distinction between them, as far as submitting an application for contact hours. Now ANCC calls everything "activities" and the same application form is submitted for all activities. An educational activity may consist of a conference, lecture, course, workshop, teleconference, live activity, printed materials, CD,  web-based program, etc.

4.   The planning committee must have at least two members, but only 1 needs to be a nurse. The Nurse Planner must have at least an RN and a BS in Nursing. Members must also include a content expert and a member of the target audience; one member may fill more than one role.

Continuing Education Manual

The Manual for Approval of Continuing Nursing Education describes the criteria and procedures for submitting an application for approval of Activities (Section 4) and a Provider (Section 5).

Necessary forms for submission are in the manual. Once all materials are complete they should be submitted in triplicate along with the necessary fees to:

Maryland Nurses Association
21 Governor's Court, Suite 195
Baltimore, Maryland 21244-2721

Questions may be directed to Pat Gwinn at 410-944-5800 pgwinn@marylandrn.org

Continuing Education Program Activity Announcements
Please see the MNA Calendar for Association sponsored programs and activities.