NMNA Accredited Approver Unit
Instructions for Individual Activity Applications
Who we are:
NMNA AAU a nationally accredited as an approver of Continuing Nursing Education since 2003,
endeavors to expand the knowledge of nurse planners across the state by assisting them in providing
learner engaging CNE activities that enhances nurses’ knowledge and skills, resulting in improved
patient outcomes and nurses’ satisfaction in the workplace. We work closely with American Nurses
Credentialing Center, our accrediting body, to maintain all criteria for high quality, evidence-informed
CNE.
Note: Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) or CE are the correct terms. NEVER refer to your activity as
CEUs, because that term is reserved for vocational education like welding. Just as physicians have
Continuing Medical Education, nurses have Continuing Nursing Education.
Carolyn (Carrie) Roberts, MSN, RN is the Administrator for the NMNA AAU, and is the
Nurse Peer Review Leader. If you are unsure how to complete a section, please email
or call her [ceapps@nmna.org; Home: 505-471-2169; Cell: 505-577-0752]. She will
work with you to get your application into shape to meet all ANCC criteria.
About the Application form: The first section is form-protected to make it easier for you to X boxes
and complete descriptions. The second section begins with the List of Planners and Presenters is
unprotected, and you can just type on these forms. The very last page, the Invoice for paying the
Review Fee for your activity (not for approved providers), is form-protected again. The invoice needs
to be completed, copied and pasted into a separate document and mail with the check for the review
to the NMNA address: P. O. Box 418, Santa Fe, NM 87504-0418.
Applications must be typed in Microsoft Office (Word) format, and submitted electronically by
attachment to: ceapps@nmna.org at least 30 days prior to the event. If the application is late, a late
fee is due (see INVOICE). Late applications CAN NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR CONFERENCES OVER 24.9
CONTACT HOURS. Please do NOT send pdfs of your application, except the marketing materials if
a fancy brochure.
Planning Continuing Nursing Education Activities:
A. NEEDS ASSESSMENT:
ANCC’s philosophy is that continuing nursing education is founded on an assessment of learner
needs, and a gap analysis of exactly what those needs are.
1. GAP ANALYSIS: A distillation of what IS in practice right now (Current state), and how practice
should look after a CNE activity is provided (Desired/Achievable state).
In the gap analysis for the example below, the Current State was determined to be: a) some
ICU/ER/CCU nurses are unable to accurately determine drip rates for the various cardiac drugs;
and b) some of the nurses had only a superficial understanding of the medications, mechanism
of action, signs of toxicity, and physiologic under-dosing of drugs.
The Desired/Achievable State was that nurses know all implications for the uses of cardiac
drugs and be able to correctly calculate the drip rates for those drugs, thus improving patient
outcomes.
2. The assessment of learner needs can be determined by requests from managers; new practice
standards from specialty nursing groups; observation of nurses in practice; annual surveys of
managers, staff nurses and others; performance improvement initiatives in the facility; new
equipment on units; the comments on evaluations from previous CNE activities; the flagging of
abnormal results through Electronic Health Record system; and/or “Never Events.”
3. A Brief Summary of data gathered that validates the need for this activity: Example:
Discovering that ICU and ER nurses are using “cheat sheets” to determine drip rates on cardiac
medications without understanding how to calculate that rate or the signs of inadequate or
excessive rates; this approved provider developed a targeted CNE course to meet the target
audience’s learning needs, providing education and practice with calculations, education on
medications actions for various cardiac issues, and how to quickly recognize reactions to the
medications.
4. What are the educational needs underlying the practice gap?
a. Is it a gap in Knowledge (Knows);
b. Skills (knows how);
c. Practice (shows, does) or
d. Other (describe)?
5. Target Audience: Which staff NEED the education? Is it RNs or RNs & LPNs? Would techs or
nursing assistants benefit from it, too? Is it all facility RNs, or only those from certain units? If
not facility based, do all nurses need it, or only Advanced Practice RNs, or is it targeted to
specialty nurses? Are you going to include PTs, OTs, STs, MSWs, counselors? (inter-disciplinary
professionals/Interprofessional group?)
6. LEARNING OUTCOME ANCC has revised the requirement for a Purpose Statement to a
Learning Outcome. As a potential provider of CNE, you need to evaluate the data you have
gathered related to learning needs of your target audience, consider how you could meet those
needs, and determine what the overall GOAL of the CNE activity will be to demonstrate that
these needs were met. This is written from the Learner’s perspective—NOT what you will Teach,
but how the learner’s knowledge, practice or other element will improve, and whether this will
affect patient outcomes.
The Learning Outcome for the above example might be: Upon completion of this activity,
nurses will accurately calculate drip rates for the various types of cardiac drugs; administer
these medications and recognize adverse effects or changes in condition. Patients will be safely
treated for cardiac conditions and have improved outcomes.
B.
Planning/Implementation Strategies:
1. Source of information from various sources- Choose resources that are RECENT—no older than
5-7 years, and specify on Page 2 what those resources are, and their publication date, so that
you don’t have to put them on the planning table.
a. Federal websites (CDC, NIH, etc.);
b. Peer-reviewed journals;
c. Clinical guidelines from national sources;
d. Expert resources (educational institutions, organizations, books, articles, national
experts;
e. Textbooks;
f. Other. (specify)
2. Learning Engagement Strategies—Consider strategies that enable Adult Learning Principles
a. Integrates opportunities for dialogue or Questions/Answers.
b. Includes time for self-check/ reflection.
c. Analysis of case studies.
d. Provides opportunities for problem-based learning.
e. Role play
f. Other (specify)
C. Criteria for Completion and Evaluation
1. Criteria for successful completion for live/enduring materials/ blended activities include
a. Attendance at entire event –no partial credit
b. Attendance at one or more sessions (partial credit)
c. Completion/submission of evaluation form-(required).
d. Achieving passing score on post-test (Passing score is ___ %). Attach post-test, if used.
e. Accurate return demonstration
f. Other (describe).
2. Description of evaluation method: Evidence that change in knowledge, skills and/or practice
of target audience was assessed: (describe)
a. Short-term Evaluation Options: (immediate results)
i. Intent to change practice
ii. Active participation in learning activity
iii. Post test passed
iv. Return demonstration
v. Case study analysis
vi. Role play demonstrates interaction techniques accomplished
vii. Other (describe)
b. Long-term Evaluation Options: (follow-up in 2-6 months)
i. Self-reported change in practice
ii. Change in quality outcome measure
iii. Return on investment (ROI)
iv. Observation of performance
v. Changes in Performance data, Patient satisfaction, Decreased incidence of
“never events.”
vi. Other: (describe).
D.
Calculation of contact hours for this activity:
Contact hours are awarded for content
areas. Welcome/breaks and meals do not count as learning time. After presenters are chosen, the
planning team works with the presenters to determine how much time is needed to present the
material in each session, using appropriate learner engagement strategies and time for feedback.
1. Live activities: On the Planning table, add all MINUTES for each session in the activity. Divide
total by 60 min./hour. For instance, if you have 3 60 minute sessions, one 90 minute session,
one 30 minute session, one 40 minute session, and 15 minutes for evaluation. 180 + 90+ 30+
40+15=355 minutes/ 60 minutes/hour= 5.91666 contact hours. You may only take your
calculations to 100ths, and may NOT round up, so you could choose to a) give 20 minutes for
evaluation (or expand time by 5 minutes for more engagement activities) to bring it to 360/60=
6.0, or b) you can offer 5.91 or 5.9 contact hours, but not 5.92.
2. Enduring Materials If your activity is an Enduring Materials activity (self-study of materials
developed by you), what was the method used to calculate contact hours? SELECT ONE:
Pilot study: complete at bottom of Planning Table
• How many RNs in Pilot group? (n o v i c e t a r g e t a u d i e n c e f o r c o n t e n t )
• What was the average of minutes to complete?
Note: those in pilot gr oup can receive contact hours AFTER the activity is
appr oved, even though they “took” the cour se before it was approved.
This applies ONLY to Endur ing Materials pilot groups.
Difficulty of m ateri al s (Mergener Calc ulati ons)
http://touchcalc.com/calculators/mergener
0.9 X [-22.3+(0.00209*w)+(2.78*q)+(15.5*d)]= Total minutes
W=NUMBER OF WORDS* (*excludes tables and charts)
Q=NUMBER OF QUESTIONS
D=DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY
NUMBER OF MINUTES =
NUMBER OF HOURS =
Difficulty of words used: 1=Very Easy, 2=Somewhat Easy, 3=Moderate, 4=Difficult, 5=Very Difficult
Example: 0.9 X [-22.3 + (0.00209 X 47000 Words) +(2.78 X 100 questions) + (15.5 x
Difficulty of 3)]
0.9 X [-22.3 + 98,23 + 278 +46.5]
0.9 X [400.43] (total minutes)
0.9 X (400.43)= 360.387 /60 minutes per contact hour= 6.00645
Hours to be awarded:
(6.00 contact hours). Remember you MAY NOT round up!
3. Blended activity- part live, part enduring materials
Add together the number of contact hours in the LIVE activity to the number of contact
hours in the Enduring Materials portion. If using the results from the examples above, it
would be 5.91 + 6.0= 11.91 contact hours.
4. Pharmacotherapeutic Hours—because APRNs have pharmacology hour requirements for
license renewal, you may want to separate out the # of minutes included in the entire activity
that will be devoted to medications, choice of meds, adverse effects, patient teaching, and
more and be able to say the person earned for instance, a total of 6.0 hours, 4.3 of which
were related to safe prescribing. You can learn more about this by downloading the ANCC
Guidelines on the NMNA website: www.nmna.org -> Continuing Education -> Individual
Activity Application.
E. PLANNERS AND PRESENTERS/AUTHORS
1. The PLANNING TEAM: (consisting of a minimum of two persons: the nurse planner and
a content expert) AND PRESENTERS/AUTHORS.
List ALL PLANNERS first, on the provided form, THEN list the Presenters.
If you have many presenters (> 10), please list alphabetically OR in order of
appearance!
•
•
•
•
Required: THE Nurse Planner: Is an actively licensed Registered Nurse with a minimum
of a Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing degree. Needs to be familiar with Adult Learning
Principles; has taken a CNE Documentation course; has been or is being mentored in the
role; and will uphold all criteria by ANCC and NMNA for planning, implementing, and
evaluating CNE. A Bio/Conflict of Interest form is required.
Required: Content Expert(s): Someone who by education, specialty practice, or other
acquired expertise is an expert on the topics to be covered in the activity. You may have
more than one expert, if you wish. Expertise of Bio/Conflict of Interest should relate to
content of THIS activity.
Administrative person: Could be the Education Department Chair, the executive for an
organization, or an Administrative Assistant who gathers all the documents, assists with
collation of evaluation data, and safely stores all records for activities. Position not required,
but if present, requires Bio/COI form for planning team, under OTHER for role.
A CONTENT REVIEWER—RARELY USED. This person is chosen to review all slides and
handouts, OF A PRESENTER WHO HAS A POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH A
COMMERCIAL ENTITY. This role is to ensure that no brand-names, no images of company
logos or tablets/syringes, etc. are included in the presentation. He or she needs to be present
during the presentation and note any problems that introduce bias into the presentation.
The Content Reviewer MAY be a member of the planning team, but is usually someone from
outside the team who is willing to provide this service. Requires a Bio/Conflict of Interest
form.
2. PRESENTERS/AUTHORS: Presenters are experts in their field. The Planning Team, after
determination of Need, doing a Gap Analysis, developing a Learning Outcome, must choose the
best available presenter on the topics and content to be covered in the activity, and the
teaching strategies the Team has chosen. Because the planning team has thought about what
they need to make an activity successful, you are responsible for vetting the resume/CV/work
history of presenters.
NMNA will NOT require, nor wish to see, the Bio/Resume/CV of your
presenters, however a full Presenter/ Author Conflict of Interest form must be
submitted for each Presenter. This is a NEW Form.
Commercial Support: Groups exhibiting or supporting the activity who meet the
definition of a commercial entity: *Commercial interest, as defined by ANCC, is any entity
producing, marketing, reselling, or distributing healthcare goods or services consumed by or used on
patients, or an entity that is owned or controlled by an entity that produces, markets, resells, or
distributes healthcare goods or services consumed by or used on patients.
If you are receiving Commercial support, you MUST complete with the supporter the
Commercial Support Template and submit the agreement with your application.
Joint Provider: If organizing an activity with a specialty organization, e.g., ENA,
Critical Care nurses, Oncology Nurses or a University or other non-commercial
entity, and they will be supplying meals, marketing, site location, etc., then your
activity will have Joint providers. You, as the planning committee for the activity,
will be the PROVIDER; the partner in planning would be the Joint provider. They
will have no official part in the planning of the education, although one of their
specialty nurses might serve on the planning committee as a content expert. You
will need to reach an agreement with the Joint Provider and complete and submit
the Joint Provider Template, and disclose the Joint Provider to participants.
F. The Educational Planning Table
The list of approved verbs, AND the column for OBJECTIVES are both GONE!
The new planning table looks like this, and to be used by both Individual Activity Applicants and
Approved Providers. It IS in landscape layout in the Planning Document, giving more room. For
Enduring Materials applications, just ignore the Time in Minutes Column.
EDUCATIONAL PLANNING TABLE
___ Individual Activity for an APPROVED PROVIDER
___ Individual Activity by an individual applicant (organization, individual)
TITLE OF ACTIVITY: ______
Gap analysis upon which activity was designed and will address:
Current state of knowledge, skills, practice:
Desired/ achievable state:
Gaps being addressed: ___ Knowledge
Other (describe):
___ Skills
___Practice
___
LEARNING OUTCOME FOR THIS ACTIVITY WILL ADDRESS
___ Nursing Professional Development
____ Patient Outcomes
The Learner will:
Presenters
Topics/ Specific content—outline of specific Session
bulleted content- 1 row per session.—If you
put Welcome, breaks, meals on here, those
minutes do NOT count as educational
content minutes.
time
in minutes
names
____ Other (describe):
Learner Engagement
Strategies
Topic/Specific Content:
The planning team is responsible for determining what needs to be taught and how to most effectively
organize it. If, for instance, you have a more mature audience of nurses, perhaps you would want to
provide a review of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, common medications used for the condition
being discussed. If the target audience is younger nurses (more recently licensed), then perhaps this
review isn’t needed.
Type into the Topic/Specific Content column the title of the session, or the general topic, then public
point the specific points to be covered. It might look something like this Sample Planning Table:
Topics/ Specific content—outline of specific bulleted
content- 1 row per session.—If you put Welcome, breaks,
meals on here, those minutes do NOT count as
educational content minutes.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
Review anatomy of heart
• Atria, Ventricles, valves, heart beat
Physiology: Electrical stimulation in the heart
• AV, SA nodes, Purkinje fibers
Overview of Heart Failure
LEFT heart failure
• Pathophysiology
• Signs and Sx
• Treatments and monitoring
RIGHT heart failure
• Pathophysiology
Time in
minutes
45
90
Presenter
Ima Nurse
Sheza
Hartdoc
Learner
Engagement
Strategies
Lecture, slides, video
of arteriogram,
handout, discussion
Lecture, slides,
discussion, Q&A, case
study group work
with report to whole.
•
•
Signs and SX
Treatments and monitoring
EVALUATION
Total minutes 150 min./60= 2.5 contact hours.
15
Notice that each speaker has ONE row on the table for their session, and that the time in minutes
listed is the TOTAL time that person will be presenting... it is not broken down into 5 or 7 or 10 or 23
or 30 minute sections—just the entire time the person is teaching.-
TIME IN MINUTES (COLUMN 2)
Enter total time in minutes for each session of the activity, one row per presenter. Putting the time in
minutes for the entire session will make it easier for you, the planner, to add up all the education
minutes correctly. If this table is for enduring materials, do not put any numbers in the Time column.
Presenter/Author—we have their degrees and credentials on the list of Planners and
Presenter/Authors... you just need to put the first and last name on the Planning Table.
Learner Engagement Strategies—look back to section B. 2. on top of page 2 of
instructions—lecture, slide, video are fine, but how do the learners GET ENGAGED? Through
discussions, group case-study work, games, and more. List all teaching/engagement strategies
in the 4th column.
At the bottom of the Planning Table pages is a place to show your contact hours calculations.
Please note if the Documentation form of individual applications is for a large conference with
many presenters, many breakouts, you will need to count the minutes for ALL of the content,
not just one/ hour, because we are responsible for reviewing all content, and breakouts add
significantly to the number of hours of content.
Below the calculations of contact hours is a statement of your responsibilities for record
retention and the provision of duplicate certificates for those who have lost their original
certificate. You’ll need to sign and date this.
If your activity is longer than 3.0 contact hours, there is space to insert an AGENDA. The agenda
should have time frames (8:30-9:30), Title of session (Topic). Presenter, Breaks and Meals.
Disclosure Template.
ANCC believes that learners have a right to be informed consumers before paying to attend a
conference. Therefore, the following items should either be on the marketing materials OR in a
handout provided when they register or sign-in for the conference:
1. Criteria for Successful Completion
2. The Learning Outcome
3. The Approval Statement
4. Presence or absence of Conflicts of Interest by Planners or Presenter/Author
5. Notice of Commercial Entity Support (must also complete Commercial Support
Template for each entity)
6. If Commercial entity exhibits, a statement on non-endorsement by NMNA and ANCC.
7. Expiration date for Enduring Materials.
Evaluation Template- there are areas where you can revise this, and you can always ADD to it
the information your organization wants to capture. ALL learners receiving CNE contact hours
must complete an evaluation form.
There are two Certificates of Completion—one for individual activity applicants to use,
one for Approved Providers to use.
A template for a sign-in sheet/course roster is provided. Please note that ANCC now want you to track
exactly HOW MANY contact hours each person earned (there is a place to put that on your sign-in
sheets, as long as the learners don’t fill it in themselves).
The INVOICE is the last page, and must be completed, except by Approved Providers.