Nursing Continuing Education
1. About the CE Committee
2. Fees for single activities and providers
3. Single Educational Activity Forms
4. Provider Forms
5. List of Active Providers
6. FAQ
7. CEA Powerpoint Tutorial
8. Updates from VNA/ANCC
9. Additional Resources
About the CE Committee
Welcome to the VNA Continuing Education Approval Committee!!
The Virginia Nurses Association Continuing Education Approval Committee is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
About the ANCC Accreditation Program and VNA CEA Committee
The ANCC accreditation program began as part of the American Nurses Association in 1974. It has since become a separate organization and is governed by the ANCC Commission on Accreditation (COA).
The Virginia Nurses Association Continuing Education Approval Committee (VNA CEA Committee) has been an accredited approver of continuing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) since 1978. The CEA Committee is responsible for the continuing nursing education approval process and reviews applications requesting contact hours for their program. As part of the Commission on Education, the Continuing Education Approval Committee function is defined in the VNA bylaws. The committee is currently overseen by the Commissioner on Nursing Education, Jennifer Matthews, and committee members currently include two co-chairs, Lolita Ramsey and Sharon Broscious, 14 volunteer nurse peer reviewers and a part-time VNA staff CEA Coordinator. The members of the committee represent a variety of practice areas and geographical areas of Virginia. Each application submitted to the VNA CEA Committee is reviewed independently by two peer reviewers. This peer review process takes an average of one month to complete.
There are two types of applications reviewed by the committee – single educational activities and approved provider applications. Single educational activities are submitted from any group/agency/organization outside of the VNA who wants to provide nursing contact hours for a single educational activity. Single educational activities are approved for a period of 2 years, allowing for the organization to repeat the same activity as often as desired in that time period when there are no changes to the education outline as approved. In the second type of application, Approved Providers have successfully demonstrated their ability to provide educational activities according to the ANCC criteria on continuing education. Approved Providers are not allowed to approve activities, however, they are allowed to award contact hours for an unlimited number of continuing education activities, implemented and evaluated by the Approved Provider for a period of 3 years. Presently, the CEA Committee has 48 Approved Providers who provide continuing education activities in a variety of settings.
For additional information on the VNA CEA Committee or for information on how to submit an application please click on the links above for the type of application you are interested in or contact the VNA CEA Coordinator, Germaine Forbes at vnacea@virginianurses.com , 804-282-1808 or 1-800-868-6877.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
Updates from VNA/ANCC
As of August 1, 2009, the VNA is no longer accepting applications from providers that target more than 50% of their educational activities in the previous year to nurses in multiple regions. Eligibility to apply or renew providership will be assessed prior to completing the application.
- Boundaries for approved providers: Organizations/units that targeted more than 50% of their educational activities provided in the previous calendar year to nurses in multiple regions, must apply to be accredited providers through the ANCC (based on the DHHS regions: http://www.hhs.gov/about/regions). Activities offered on the internet are considered to target nurses in multiple regions. For example – Organization Z provided 5 national conferences in the previous calendar year, targeting nurses from all 50 states. Organization Z would not be eligible to apply to the VNA as an approved provider and would have to apply directly to the ANCC to be an accredited provider.
- This eligibility requirement means that some providers who have previously been approved by the VNA will now need to apply directly to ANCC to be accredited providers. If an organization can not be an approved provider through the VNA and does not wish to pursue an application with the ANCC as an accredited provider, but still wishes to seek contact hours for their activities, this requirement does not exclude an applicant from submitting a single educational activity application to the VNA for each activity.
- Approved Providers that target more than 50% of their educational activities to nurses in multiple regions may submit an application for a single educational activity through the VNA CEA Committee while transitioning to become an Accredited Provider through the ANCC. See ANCC letter dated March 16, 2010
- Commercial entities as defined by the ANCC, are no longer allowed to apply to be an approved provider nor for contact hours for a single educational activity.
For additional information on the changes highlighted above, visit the ANCC 2009 Manual FAQ website at http://www.nursecredentialing.org/ContinuingEducation/Accreditation/ResourcesServices/2009ManualFAQ.aspx.
Other Updates:
Information on contact hour non eligibility for PALs, ACLs and BLS courses from ANCC
Changes in the 2009 ANCC Accreditation Application Manual
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Additional Resources
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