As of January 1st, 2014, North Carolina physical therapy professionals are looking at new rules for their continuing competency requirements. Yes, we know, change can be scary and inconvenient, but not in this case. The new board rules actually make it easier to complete your requirements. Let’s take a look at your new rules.
The Reporting Period
The rule: “25 month period commencing on January 1 during which the licensee must complete all continuing competence requirements. Points earned by a licensee may be counted toward completion during one reporting period only.“, and “Up to 10 extra points earned during one reporting period may be carried over to the next reporting period, except that points earned for the Jurisprudence Exercise, Clinical Practice and Self-Assessment categories may not be carried forward.”
The translation: You have 25 months to finish up and report your completed continuing education requirements. You can also complete up to 10 extra hours to be applied to the following reporting period, barring the exceptions noted above. But you can’t report the same hours for your next cycle. Be sure that you write down which courses you reported for which period so you don’t overlap or report the same hours twice!
NOTE: Your next continuing competency deadline is January 31st, 2015.
Required Hours
The rule: “For individuals licensed prior to January 1, 2009, during each reporting period thereafter, each physical therapist must accumulate 30 points, and each physical therapist assistant must accumulate 20 points of continuing competence activities to be eligible for license renewal.”
The translation: PTs need 30 hours of continuing competency courses and PTAs are looking at a 20 hour requirement. 10 points = 10 hours. Easy!
Home Study/Online Limitations
The rule: “The maximum number of points allowed during any reporting period for an interactive course offered through electronic media is 15. For registered participation in a non-interactive course offered by an approved provider…The maximum number of points allowed during any reporting period is 10. 15 hours for live webinars 0109 (a) (1) electronic media, 10 hours for home study (text/sod) 0109 (a) (4), 10 hours for home study (text/sod) 0109 (a) (8)."
The translation: You can complete up to 15 hours with interactive, online sessions. These include all approved HomeCEUConnection.com webinars. You can also complete up to 10 hours on non-interactive online courses, like our Seminars-on-Demand (SOD) and up to 10 hours of text or SOD courses. Confused? Don't be! In a nutshell you can do 15 hours of webinars and 20 hours of SODs, OR 15 hours of webinar, 10 hours of SODs and 10 hours of text.
So NC PTs and PTAs, that means you can complete your entire continuing education requirement with us!
That’s great news for you! By raising the amount of hours you can complete online with an approved provider, the North Carolina board of Physical Therapy Examiners is making it infinitely easier to fit your continuing education into your schedule and budget. No time to waste, get started today and beat the rush!