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Montana Nurses
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Association
Provider Newsletter: April, 2014
Provider Update – Right Around the Corner!
“Investigating the Evidence” will be the theme for this year’s provider update. The morning
session will focus on evidence to support quality in designing, implementing, and evaluating
individual activities. The afternoon will focus on evidence to support quality in provider unit
operations and outcomes. Join your colleagues for a day of sharing and learning to be sure you
are appropriately using evidence-based criteria to enhance your work in continuing nursing
education!
Registration Fee: $75 per person or $175 per facility (up to 3 participants)
Please contact Kathy@mtnurses.org to register or
register online at www.mtnurses.org
ALASKA SITE: Registration 9:00 am May 19th, 2014 Update 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Providence Health Park
3851 Piper Street, U Tower (Cancer Center)
Anchorage, AK 99508
Parking is available in PS4. There is also valet parking. The conference room is on the 2 nd floor
of the U Tower.
Piper Street can be accessed from Providence Dr (36th Ave), Tudor Road or 40th.
MONTANA SITE: Registration 9:00 am May 22nd, 2014 Update 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Green Meadow Country Club
2720 Country Club Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
Montana Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
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International Continuing Education Experience
Pam Dickerson had the opportunity to serve as one of a 6-member faculty team that traveled to
Doha, Qatar (in the Middle East) to present an international, Interprofessional, transcultural
symposium on continuing professional development. This event included two days of preconference intensives with five tracks participants could choose, based on their own learning
needs. The following two days included plenary and break-out sessions, all focused on
enhancing the role and functions of professional development educators from all practice
areas. In conjunction with the symposium, Hamad Medical Corporation, the provider of the
symposium, received its initial accreditation as a provider of continuing nursing education
through ANCC. It was exciting to see the collective energy, enthusiasm, and commitment of
administrators, managers, educators, and staff. Many of our challenges and our goals are
common, despite the uniquenesses of our practice environments and healthcare cultures. Our
collective commitment to quality professional development as a critical component of quality
patient care is remarkable. It truly is a small world!
Awarding Pharmacology Contact Hours
There are often questions about what “counts” as pharmacology hours for advanced practice registered nurses
with prescriptive authority. The ANCC Accreditation Program office is working on information related to the best
way to share that information with providers and how to document those hours on a certificate. Until we have
an official opinion on that, the best option would be to document as “12 contact hours, including 6 contact hours
of pharmacotherapeutics” or 3 rx contact hours. Of course, your approved provider statement would be written
just like always.
The following information is published as an FAQ on the ANCC web site retrieved 3/19/14 from
HTTP://WWW.NURSECREDENTIALING.ORG/PHARMACOTHERAPEUTICSREQUIREMENTS
PHARMACOTHERAPEUTICS CONTACT HOUR
REQUIREMENTS
What Is...
Montana Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
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Certification
CNE for Certification or Licensure
Back to FAQs
Information for re-certifying ANCC Certified Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) and Nurse
Practitioners (NP), effective January 1, 2014:
1. 25 of the 75 required contact hours must be in pharmacotherapeutics. Important note: If
you double category 1, there is NO requirement to double the number of pharmacotherapeutic
hours.
2. These 25 pharmacotherapeutic hours do not need to be formally ANCC accredited/approved,
provided the certified nurse meets the requirements for Category 1 contact hours. (That
requirement is: at least 51% of the total number of contact hours must be in your certification
role and specialty and at least 50% must be formally ANCC accredited/approved.)
3. If an educational program includes pharmacy content, please refer to equivalency tables in
above link/brochure to determine the number of pharmacotherapeutic hours that could be
counted towards re-certification. Align calculation with the agenda or content (e.g. 60 minutes
of a 2 hour presentation was devoted to pharmacotherapeutics = 1 contact hour).
4. The educational presentation or conference agenda may be submitted as evidence to
validate the contact hour calculation. A narrative note describing pharmacology content within
agenda may be necessary to validate content.
5. The same hours submitted to renew certification may be submitted to a State Board of
Nursing for re-licensure.
6. Pharmacotherapeutic content does not need to be presented by a nurse for the hours to be
eligible for re-certification however the presenter must have content expertise in
pharmacology.
Providers:
1. If a provider is developing content to meet the ANCC pharmacotherapeutic hour
requirement, content must specifically address pharmacotherapeutics.
2. Pharmacotherapeutic content does not need to be presented by a nurse for the hours to be
eligible for re-certification however the presenter must have content expertise in
pharmacology.
3. When developing the content for an educational activity, it is recommended that the
provider delineate the number of pharmacotherapeutic contact hours.
4. Existing continuing education courses/programs that include pharmacotherapeutic content
may be reviewed to calculate the appropriate number of pharmacotherapeutic contact hours.
Montana Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
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5. When a speaker develops content for an educational activity, it would be advised that
pharmacotherapeutic contact hours contained within the presentation be calculated at that
time.
**Pharmacotherapeutic content may include but is not limited to drug specific information,
safe prescribing practices, safe medication administration, prescribing methodologies, new
regulations or similar content.
Upcoming Activities
May 19, 2014 – Alaska Provider Update - Anchorage
May 22, 2014 – Montana Provider Update – Helena
October 1-3, 2014 – MNA Annual Convention – Theme: Nurses: Key Partners on the Healthcare Team
Coming in the fall: A 4-part webinar series on completing the provider application: 00, SC, EDP, and QO.
More information will be provided soon.
Other events will be scheduled throughout the year. Please let us know if you have a suggested topic!
Contact Information
Pam Dickerson, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, Director of Continuing Education
pam@mtnurses.org
1-406-465-9126
Kathy Schaefer, CE Specialist
kathy@mtnurses.org
1-406-442-6710
See you in May! 
Montana Nurses Association is accredited as an approver of continuing nursing education by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.