Table of Contents
Summary
If you’re a nuclear medicine technologist working at a nuclear cardiology lab, you need to meet the CE requirements of each of these:
- Your accreditation agency
- The IAC or ACR
- Your certification board(s)
- NMTCB and/or ARRT
- Your state
This article briefly summarizes the requirements of each.
Accreditation Agency Requirements
IAC Nuclear/PET
Here are the IAC requirements for continuing education for nuclear medicine technologists working at IAC accredited labs – whether you’re the Technical Director or you’re Technical Staff:
“You must obtain at least 15 hours of accredited CE relevant to nuclear medicine, every three years. All CE hours must be approved CE (i.e., VOICE, ASRT, ACE, AMA Category I).
- “Relevant” to nuclear medicine includes content that is directly related to the performance or interpretation of nuclear cardiology, general nuclear medicine, PET or interventions used during nuclear testing (such as stress testing) or content that is directly related to one of the IAC Nuclear/PET Standards.
- This may include no more than five credits of MR and/or CT CME.
- This does not include education primarily concerning echocardiography/ultrasound, cardiac catheterization, general medicine or the treatment of diseases unless directly related to the interpretation of nuclear imaging or radionuclide therapies.”
ACR
If you’re a CNMT working in an ACR accredited lab:
Your 24 CE’s every two years must: “include credits pertinent to the technologist’s ACR accredited clinical practice.”
Board Certification Requirements
NMTCB
You need 24 CE credits every 2 years (“biennium”) if you are a Certified Nuclear Medicine Technologist (CNMT) registered through the NMTCB. That works out to 1 credit/month.
Your biennium begins the first day of your birth month. Depending on when you were first certified, that may be an odd or even year. You can find out when your CE biennium is by clicking here. (You must have your certification number, which is on your wallet card & certificate.)
Those credits must be related to Nuclear Medicine.
You can repeat the exact same CE course for different bienniums. For example, you can take a course now, then the same exact course in your next 2-year CE cycle.
You can’t do the same CE course twice in the same biennium (sometimes you’ll see the same course offered through different vendors).
Additional NMTCB Certifications:
- If you have a CT specialty certification from the NMTCB, then you need 12 additional CE credits, specific to CT, in addition to your 24 CE requirement.
- However, if you have a PET or NCT certification with NMTCB, that does not impose any additional CE requirements on you.
- Those speciality certificiations do expire, here’s the verbiage from the NMTCB site:
- Specialty certificants who want to recertify for an additional seven years will be required to (1) successfully pass the specialty examination OR (2) display 42 hours of acceptable specialty-specific continuing education (the equivalent of 6 hours per year of certification). Please note that no more than half of the specialty CE hours should be obtained in the 12 months prior to credential expiration.
- Those speciality certificiations do expire, here’s the verbiage from the NMTCB site:
The NMTCB recognizes CE Credits from different “Approval Mechanisms”, in other words, organizations like ASRT, SNMMI VOICE, AHRA, etc., that put their stamp of approval on a CE activity or course.
Click here to see all NMTCB recognized CE approval organizations
Click here for FAQ about NMTCB CE Requirements
Alternative Ways of Meeting NMTCB Requirements:
- Active duty military deployed overseas are exempt from CE requirements
- Successful completion of any post-primary exam recognized by NMTCB, ARRT, ARDMS or AHRA are considered the equivalent of 24 CE hours
- College level courses related to Radiological Health Sciences, Patient Care & Nuclear Medicine Technology will be counted
- Up to 16 hours/semester
- Also Business, Technology or Education courses related to healthcare will be considered
- Up to 16 hours/semester
- ACLS or PALS can count for up to 6 hours
ARRT
Just like the NMTCB, you need 24 CE credits every 2 years (“biennium”) if you are a Nuclear Medicine Technologist RT(N) registered through the ARRT.
Your CE biennium begins the first day of your birth month.
Find out your exact biennium here (Just enter your first & last name in the search box)
ARRT states that:
- R.T.s should select CE topics that are related to their area of practice and that will maintain their competence and prevent professional obsolescence.
- R.R.A.s and R.T.(S)s have mandatory requirements regarding the types of CE topics they must select (see Sections 18 or 19 respectively). See Section 20 for restrictions on CE activities and reporting.
So there is NO strict requirement that credits must be related to nuclear medicine for ARRT(N)s.
Just like the NMTCB, you can’t do the same CE activity twice in the same biennium (even if it is offered through different vendors). But, you can repeat the same activity for a subsequent biennium.
All the courses in our CE guide are ARRT Recognized Continuing Education Evaluation Mechanisms.
Click here to see the ARRT Recognized CE approval organizations (Look at the organizations listed in Section 21)
Alternative Ways of Meeting ARRT Requirements:
- For a limited time only: If you become certified and registered in an additional primary or post-primary discipline, that can count for all of your CE requirements for that biennium.
- But, for CE bienniums beginning on or after January 1, 2018, additional certifications will NOT count towards your CE requirement.
- Advanced Level CPR: ACLS or PALS certification will be awarded a maximum of six CE credits.
- A valid advanced CPR card from the Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or the American Safety & Health Institute is acceptable documentation for a CE audit.
- Applications Training: The maximum number of CE credits for applications facility training will be capped at 8.0 Category A credits per biennium.
- Tumor Boards: A maximum of 12 CE credits per biennium may be claimed for tumor boards
State Requirements
Most states merely require you to stay certified with the ARRT or NMTCB.
Some states, such as Florida and California, have additional CE requirements beyond the ARRT/NMTCB. This guide does not fully address all of those requirements; you will need to verify state requirements on your own.
However, we can give you some state information:
- Florida: Curium’s CEs do contain 22.5 CE hours that are specifically accepted by Florida.
- California: Omnipath & NucMedTutorials.com have many credits that are specifically accepted by California.
- (SNMMI) VOICE credits are typically the most widely accepted CE credits