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Continuing Competence Requirements for RN and LPN license renewal:
Continuing Competency Program taken from the Commission website:
"The Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission adopted rules for an independent continuing competency program effective January 2011. Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses will be required to keep documentation showing at least 531 hours of active practice and 45 clock hours of continuing education. The hours must start on their renewal date this year <2011>. As a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse, you will have until your renewal date in 2014 to meet these requirements (three years).
We will begin random audits in 2014. You will not need to send in documentation unless we select you for an audit. License renewals will continue to be annual; however, nurses must attest every three years to reflect they have met the requirements for both practice and continuing education.
Options and Acceptable Documentation of Continuing Competency PDF
Notice: You will see the attestation on your renewal notice when your renewal cycle ends. It is your responsi-bility to inform the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission of any change in address, email, and tele-phone number, whether renewing or not."
From WAC 246-840-203:
"Continuing competence requirements-Active Status. (1) (a) Document compliance with the continuing com-petence requirements every three years. Beginning January 1, 2014, and every three years thereafter, each nurse must sign an attestation on a form provided by the department of health declaring completion of the re-quired active nursing practice and continuing nursing education hours. Each nurse will have a full three years to meet the requirements."
NOTE:
Practice hours of 531 are for 3 years and all your parish nursing time counts-including meetings, visits, phone calls, BP clinics. Any type of "...acts requiring substantial specialized nursing knowledge, judgment, and skills..." either paid or unpaid. That includes many types of activities; see WAC 246-840-206, (4). If audited, document practice hours by providing: (a) thru (f). See actual law for this information; link is below.
For the 531 hours of practice, that comes out to 177 hours per year (x3 =531). That would be 3.4 hrs per week of work as a parish nurse....
The 45 hours of required continuing nursing education amounts to 15 hours per year. These hours include in-person programs (like our monthly meetings for FCNs, and our annual retreats), self-study, and online nurs-ing education programs. The nature of these programs is determined by the nurse by completing self-assessment and reflection when selecting education and training opportunities needed in his/her nursing prac-tice. That includes making presentations at our "Foundations" course.
There are many types of continuing ed activities; see WAC 246-840-206, (5). If audited, document continuing education by providing: (a) thru (h). See actual law for this information; link is below.
You do need to have kept a log of all this, but that is only asked for if you are audited, which is a separate process from renewing your license. If you have submitted annual reports to us, you can use that information for your nursing practice log. The certificate that we send out every year, for attending meetings, counts to-ward continuing ed, as do the annual day-long retreats. Save all this!! Keep track easily of your PN practice hours (on a calendar, for example) and do keep a copy of any annual report you make to your congregation, documenting hours there spent in nursing practice.
It is not difficult to meet the requirements; please don't let your RN license expire because of this!!
Please read the requirements carefully and then get your log or file in order for your 2014 renewal.
Here's a link to the requirements (note there is mention of parish nurses and volunteer nursing):
www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/6000/draftwac.pdf
Let me know if I can help you further with this.
Jeanne
Rev.3.13.14
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