Accepted Contact Hour Activities
Things you can do to earn contact hours.
You will have the option to designate your contact hours as either medical-surgical or professional development when you enter them into your recertification application.
You must earn a total of 90 verified contact hours from the activities during your accrual period. 68 of the 90 must be designated MedSurg. Only 22 of the 90 may be designated ProfDev.
You can use the following activities to earn contact hours. The CMSRN Certification Handbook explains how many contact hours you
may earn for each activity and how to record the hours in your recertification
application.
We advise you to save all documentation related to these activities, as you will need to
submit them at the time of your application. You cannot claim contact hours for the same
activity completed multiple times.
Continuing Education
Continuing education from an accredited provider or approver of NCPDs. Continuing
education certificates must include your name, date and name of program, number of NCPDs
awarded and accreditation statement.
Preceptor/Mentor
Provide medical-surgical focused clinical supervision to baccalaureate, master's, or
doctoral degree students or newly hired nurses. Include in your recertification
application with a preceptorship form.
Preceptor/Mentor Verification Form
Academics
Academic courses related to nursing successfully completed while enrolled in an
accredited baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degree program. Include in your
recertification application with an unofficial transcript.
Presentations
Preparation and presentation of content for academic courses or NCPD programs.
Presentations must award to participants either academic credit or contact hours by an
accredited provider or approver of NCPDs.
Publications
Author, co-author, or editor of a book, book chapter, or published article. The article
must be a manuscript or research paper, and any publication must be published by a
recognized publisher or professional journal.
Conference Poster
The poster must be relevant to medical-surgical nursing and presented at a regional or
national meeting.
Multimedia Program
The development of program content for audiovisual or other multimedia.
Research
Research project approved by the Investigational Review Board (IRB) of a healthcare
facility in which you are one of the primary investigators. Include in your
recertification application with the research proposal submitted to the facility's IRB.
Evidence-Based Practice projects that have been given exempt status by the IRB or have
been implemented in your healthcare facility and are reflected in its policies,
procedures, or clinical guidelines. You must have been involved in the development,
implementation, and evaluation of the project. Include in your recertification
application with a copy of the research proposal.
Board or Committee
Board member or committee chair of a national nursing organization.
Test Development
Members of MSNCB Test Development Committees may count active participation time. These
hours will be automatically reported on your behalf, and can be seen in the AMSN
Reported Contact Hours section of your application.
Recertification Committee
Members of MSNCB Recertification Committee may count active participation time. These
hours will be automatically reported on your behalf, and can be seen in the AMSN
Reported Contact Hours section of your application.
AMSN Volunteer Unit
Members of most AMSN Volunteer Units may count active participation time. Contact hour
amount and designation are to be determined at the discretion of the AMSN committee
chair and staff liaison. These hours will be automatically reported on your behalf, and
can be seen in the AMSN Reported Contact Hours section of your application.