Nursing Continuing Education Credit

This was just posted on the Texas Board of Nursing website:

Senate Bill 993 (80th Texas Legislative Session, 2007) amended the Nursing Practice Act (NPA) section 301.303, eliminating the restriction that the BON could only require 10 hours of the 20 hours of continuing education (CE) required for license renewal/reactivation/reinstatement to be from approved programs (Type I CE). Reviewing the past several months of CE audits, Board staff determined that fewer than 5 nurses out of the hundreds who were randomly audited for CE compliance met any part of their requirements through non-approved (Type II) CE programs.

Thus, the new rule language in Rule 216 Continuing Education that became effective January 8, 2008, effectively eliminates Type II CE. The proposed amendments were initially published in the November 16, 2007, edition of the Texas Register (32 TexReg 8248).

In order to allow time for nurses and providers of CE to become aware of these changes in nursing continuing education requirements, the BON will recognize an implementation phase through the end of October 2008. This means a nurse who is required to show evidence of meeting the BON’s CE requirements through the end of October 2008 may submit up to 10 hours of CE that meets the formerly recognized criteria for Type II CE.

The number of CE hours required for nurses with volunteer retired status on their license in compliance with rule 217.9 remain unchanged (10 hours for VR-VNs and VR-RNs, and 20 hours for VR-APNs), but the same provisions for acceptable in rule 216 do apply.

Beginning November 1, 2008, all nurses who are renewing, reactivating, or reinstating their license must meet the criteria listed in the revised Rule 216.