As genetic counselors, we want our training and skills as healthcare professionals to be recognized. We have distinguished ourselves through ABGC Certification and are making great strides towards State licensure across the US. These credentials help us obtain recognition from employers, payers, and governments, which allows us to further advance our profession.
With these fancy letters behind our names, we have to prove that we deserve to keep them. While we could take the boards again, most of us instead choose to do this through Continuing Education Units, or CEUs.
WHAT ARE CEUS?
CEUs are courses taken to help ensure you keep up with new developments in the field. They can be earned by way of conferences, online webinars, journal clubs and more. Many hospitals and institutions offer free activities such as grand rounds or case conferences that can be claimed for CEU credits. Genetic laboratories and other companies sometimes sponsor lectures online or in person as well.
NOT ALL CEUS ARE CREATED EQUAL
Many different professions require CEUs, so these courses can be found in many places. Obviously a CEU course created for a lawyer is not going to be useful for a GC, so you need to be careful about what types of courses you sign up for. Here are some definitions all GCs should know.
Contact Hours- The amount of time directly spent on learning during a particular course. It takes 10 contact hours to earn 1 CEU. Time spent doing other activities, such as eating meals or networking, doesn’t count. For example, if you attended an 8 hour conference, but only 4 of those hours were spent in actual lectures, you’ll only earn 4 contact hours, which equals 0.4 CEUs.
Category 1 CEU- Courses that have been pre-approved by the NSGC. The organizer of the event handles the approval of the course ahead of time. ABGC and many states require that you have a minimum number of Category 1’s to renew, so you’ll want to take these whenever you can. When taking a Category 1 course, you’ll usually be asked to complete a short survey after the event, and pay a small fee (which is sometimes covered by the event sponsor) in order to get your credits. The organizers of the event submit these to NSGC, who then sends you a Certificate of Completion.
Category 2 CEU- These are courses that have NOT been pre-approved by the NSGC, but still may relate to the field of genetic counseling. For example, if your institution has monthly Grand Rounds for the physicians and hospital staff at large, you can likely use your proof of attendance to get Category 2 credits. To get credit, you have to submit the course to NSGC along with some documentation and a fee within a certain time after taking the course. If you wait too long, you won't be able to get credit. ABGC and some states put limits on how many Category 2’s you can use to renew.
Professional Activity Credits (PACs)- You can earn credits for certain activities related to the profession, such as teaching or writing publications. These activities don’t follow the same 10 hour per unit rule as CEUs, instead each type of activity is measured in its own way. ABGC puts a limit on how many PACs can be used for recertification, and many states don’t accept them at all for license renewals.
Continuing Medical Education (CMEs)- These are the equivalent of CEUs for medical doctors. You can usually get credit for CME courses if you apply to have them counted as Category 2 CEUs. Unlike CEUs, CMEs are counted as 1 credit per hour, so be aware that 1 CME credit is only worth 1/10th of a CEU.
CEU Certificates- Every CEU course you take should provide you with a CEU certificate. This certificate will either be emailed, or added to your NSGC Education Center login. Once in the Education Center click on My Learning and select the Grades tab to view your completed courses and certificates.
How long it takes to get the certificate can vary greatly. If the event or course is sponsored by NSGC itself, you may get the certificate instantly. However, most other sponsors have to submit these credits to NSGC for approval after the event, and it may take weeks or months for you to receive your certificate. Keep that in mind when planning your CEUs for the year. Many states make you submit the certificates with your renewal, so you can't claim credit for courses you don't have a certificate for. You also always want to have your certificates handy in case of an audit, which many states reserve the right to do for years after your renewal.
ABGC and each of the States that require licensure have different CEU requirements. Some are very specific about what types of CEUs are allowed. You need to familiarize yourself with the requirements for your own renewals to make sure you’re getting all the courses you need. Our Elsie CEU Tracker helps by automatically calculating CEU requirements for each of your licenses, and is free to use with 1 or 2 licenses. We also store the CEU certificates for each renewal for handy reference in case of an audit.
