CEU's are there special requirements for 1st time?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.

I just completed and got certified for my hospital's Basic Critical Care course. The cert says on it "continuing education..." and states it's worth 31.8 contact hours.

I graduated last year and my renewel is up in October, I guess b/c of my birth month. From the info I gathered, I still have to do 30 hours, if my renewel was in April apparantly I wouldn't, so I'm guessing that's b/c it's an end of year thing for me, but I don't know.

I was told by the instructor for this course, that if I was a nurse past my 1st renewel this course would count for my CEU's but since I have to renew in October and it's my 1st time, it won't! :confused:

I don't get it. It seems like she's saying it will count for 2011 so it will count for my renewel for 2012 but not now. Does that make sense? If it's true, I heard that you can renew w/o having all of the contact hours complete, you just apply for an extension. My nursing school instructors told us that but no one I've talked to knows anything about it! Any clues? Thanks.

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Specializes in Pediatric Mental Health.

In MA you do not need CEUs to renew your license the first time, this may be the case where you are as well

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.
In MA you do not need CEUs to renew your license the first time, this may be the case where you are as well

Hey thanks. Is there a certain section on the state BON that I should look under to find the info?

From what I was told, I do have to do the units b/c of when my renewel is due. Regardless that it's my first. From how people have told me, it's almost like I'm in between 2 types of rules or something. But no one has been able to tell me for sure yet.

Since it goes by the birth month and people take the exam at different times of year, the only thing that makes sense is the time between my taking the boards and my birthday is a little over a month. I know some of my former classmates have that extra year before they expire. It seems odd that since I have less time with the license that I need to come up with the hours. But if so, I don't see why this course wouldn't count.

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

What state are you in? In CA, you don't need CEUs for your first renewal. This is true of everyone, regardless of when their birthday is. I'd be very surprised if this rule was different in different states, but contact your state's BRN to be sure. For CA, this info is on the BRN website, which is rn.ca.gov .

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.
What state are you in? In CA, you don't need CEUs for your first renewal. This is true of everyone, regardless of when their birthday is. I'd be very surprised if this rule was different in different states, but contact your state's BRN to be sure. For CA, this info is on the BRN website, which is rn.ca.gov .

I'm in PA I'll see if I can find the info on the website. Do you know if the CEU's have an expiry? For example this course I took, if I don't need the units this time around would they be good in 2012? Or does it have to be within a certain time frame?

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Specializes in hospice, ortho,clinical review.

Ok thanks for the info, I was able to navigate all the info and I think you're right, I shouldn't need to renew for my 1st time. I wonder though, since it says that there is just the "yes or no" section to check when you do the renewel, since they're not lookin for documentation, I wonder if there's a "N/A" box since this is a first time:uhoh3: I worry about the craziest stuff sometimes.

I think what was tripping people up is there is a form that has the guidelines of when CEU's have to be completed, and it does say for October that they needed to be done from 11/08 to 10/10....but then in FAQ's it has the bit about 1st time license so thank you. I think I'm good to go.....I'm a little irked that it jumped up to 65.00 though....just this past August, how convenient.

Off topic, I just got the package info for my son's Sr. pictures:eek: So I'm a little sensitve about cost issues right now!;)

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

Sounds like you may have figured this out already, but the reason the timing matters is that, when you get to the point where you do need CEU's (your second renewal), the requirement is "30 CEU's within 2 years of date of renewal". So, since you're more than 2 years away from your second renewal, CEUs you earn now won't count. After your first renewal is when you can start accumulating CEUs towards your next renewal.

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