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? (novice target audience for content) What was the average of minutes to complete? Note: those in pilot group can receive contact hours AFTER the activity is approved, even though they took the course before it was approved. This applies ONLY to Enduring Materials pilot groups. Difficulty of materials (Mergener Calculations) 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 Skills Practice Other (describe): LEARNING OUTCOME FOR THIS ACTIVITY WILL ADDRESS Nursing Professional Development Patient Outcomes Other (describe): The Learner will: 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. Session time in minutes Presenters names 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. Review anatomy of heart Atria, Ventricles, valves, heart beat 2. Physiology: Electrical stimulation in the heart AV, SA nodes, Purkinje fibers 3. Overview of Heart Failure 1. LEFT heart failure Pathophysiology Signs and Sx Treatments and monitoring 2. RIGHT heart failure Pathophysiology Time in minutes Presenter Learner Engagement Strategies 45 Ima Nurse Lecture, slides, video of arteriogram, handout, discussion 90 Sheza Hartdoc Lecture, slides, discussion, Q&A, case study group work with report to whole.
Signs and SX Treatments and monitoring EVALUATION 15 Total minutes 150 min./60= 2.5 contact hours. 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 4 th 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.