We've gotten a number of excellent and illuminating questions about the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals recently—enough to put them together as a blog. We've got news, too—we're updating our online continuing education platform!
Does ACVP offer continuing education online?
"I am a registered cardiac sonography tech. I was wondering if your organization offers any continued education courses online. If so will you please direct me to the right location... I am having such a hard time navigating through these websites. Thanks for your help!"
Yes! ACVP does offer continuing education courses online through CVCEU.ORG.
We are currently in the process of updating our online education platform to be much more user-friendly, interactive and technologically current. We expect it will provide a much higher level of user satisfaction and have a broader spectrum of offerings!
In the meantime, however, we are still supporting CVCEU. If you haven't taken any of the modules yet, go right ahead and earn your contact hours (CEUs CEPs) online—some modules are completely free! (All modules are completely free for ACVP members.)
If you have any trouble, give us a call (804.639.9213) or send us an email.
Are the online courses approved with CCI?
"All of these classes are approved with CCI right?"
The short, simplified answer is yes! Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) doesn't actually approve CEUs or courses, but we receive approval from several different bodies for all of our educational offerings covering different cardiovascular professionals—(RNs, CVTs, RTs, etc.)—and CCI accepts contact hours (CEUs CEPs) approved by those organizations.
Is ACVP membership beneficial for my profession?
"Hi, I'm a echo tech and want to know if CMEs are available for echo techs?"
"Is your organization beneficial for Nurse Practitioners?"
Yes, and yes! Firstly, all of our education is inclusive of echo techs—both our online and in-person education offerings cover cardiac nurses, radiologic technologists, and cardiovascular technologists and technicians, regardless of cardiac specialty.
We even have special offerings in-person and online for administrators and managers of cardiovascular services.
Our in-person regional meetings held throughout the U.S. and throughout the year are designed to be interprofessional and inclusive of the entire cardiac care team. After all, shouldn't quality team-based care start with quality team-based education?
Currently, only select regional meetings are approved for contact hours for Nurse Practitioners, due to an additional cost burden. This is generally at the discretion of the host institution—if they want to make the investment for their NP staff.
As a membership organization, the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professional provides support, information, education and networking for all professionals in all specialties of cardiovascular care—including nurse practitioners of course!
ACVP strongly believes in the value of team-based care and the value of each professional perspective in the care team, so we value a wide array of professional perspectives in our membership.
Explore our website to learn more about the benefits of ACVP membership.
How many CEUs are offered at a particular meeting?
"Can you tell me how many units this meeting is worth?"
We get this question a lot, and unfortunately we can't answer it generically. Due to the CME approval process, we're unable to guarantee a certain number of approved contact hours for any particular meeting ahead of time. Typically, however, our meetings range between 4-6 contact hours.
Generally, a contact hour is one 50-minute education session and a metric you can use to estimate how many units might be offered by a particular meeting.
Ask your own question in the comments below!
Update (10/12): Changes to CCI's Continuing Education Submission Policy for triennial renewals go into effect December 31, 2016. Learn more.