All your activities in one place. Learn how to earn contact hours towards recertification and enter them in your Tracker.
Open Tracker
Submit your contact hours for verification.
The Contact Hours Tracker conveniently offers you a way to take charge of your CMSRN recertification plan. Use the Contact Hours Tracker to enter and track contact hour activities, store your employment information, review the verification status of contact hours, and apply for recertification.
Your contact hours will be reviewed and verified within 30 days of entry. Some activities require additional documentation before verification can take place, such as preceptorships and academic courses. The preceptor verification form can be found at the end of the CMSRN Certification Handbook. Send preceptor forms and academic transcripts to certification@amsn.org.
Verification of contact hours is not a guarantee that you will pass the audit. If you are randomly selected for audit, the verification and designation of your contact hours may be altered.
Contact hours earned in the AMSN Library are automatically recorded and verified in your Contact Hours Tracker. These contact hours are also automatically designated MedSurg.
You may receive an "Access Denied" message when you attempt to use the Tracker. Try the following fixes:
Things you can do to earn contact hours.
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 report the hours in your Tracker.
We advise you to save all documentation related to these activities in case your recertification application is randomly selected for audit. You cannot claim contact hours for the same activity completed multiple times.
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.
Provide medical-surgical focused clinical supervision to baccalaureate, master's, or doctoral degree students or newly hired nurses. Enter in Tracker and then email the preceptorship form to certification@amsn.org.
Academic courses related to nursing successfully completed while enrolled in an accredited baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degree program. Enter in Tracker and then email the unofficial transcript to certification@amsn.org.
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.
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.
The poster must be relevant to medical-surgical nursing and presented at a regional or national meeting.
The development of program content for audiovisual or other multimedia.
Research project approved by the Investigational Review Board (IRB) of a healthcare facility in which you are one of the primary investigators. Enter in Tracker and then email the research proposal submitted to the facility's IRB to certification@amsn.org.
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. Enter in Tracker and then email the research proposal to certification@amsn.org.
Board member or committee chair of a national nursing organization.
Members of MSNCB Test Development Committees may count active participation time.
Members of MSNCB Recertification Committee may count active participation time.
Members of most AMSN Volunteer Units may count active participation time. Contact AMSN's Volunteer Relations Coordinator to determine eligibility.
MedSurg or ProfDev
You will have the option to designate your contact hours as either medical-surgical (MedSurg/Specialty) or professional development (ProfDev) when you enter them into your Tracker.
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/Specialty. Only 22 of the 90 may be designated ProfDev.
| 68 MedSurg Contact Hours |
| + 22 MedSurg or ProfDev Contact Hours |
| = 90 Total Contact Hours |
Contact hours related to medical-surgical nursing practice and direct patient care. Excludes psychiatry, obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics.
Contact hour activities that are related to the broad area of health care and general nursing. Includes nursing informatics and theory, ethics, leadership, and more.
