Locating Discipline-Specific CE Requirements by State

A majority of clinical health care professions require that providers complete continuing education (CE) in order to practice. For instance, national boards require CE hours to obtain/maintain certification, and most states also require annual or biannual CEs for licensure. Some states have topic-specific requirements, which can be a powerful incentive to acquire new knowledge and skills.

Palliative care champions can use relevant state CE requirements to advance skill-building in serious illness care including in communication, symptom management, and other key aspects of palliative care. The following is a list of resources to identify discipline-specific requirements in each state.

This resource is for informational purposes only. For the most up-to-date requirements, please confirm with your relevant state board for your discipline.

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) tracks CME requirements for MDs and DOs, including the number of hours and any content-specific requirements, across all 50 states and most territories. Their resources include a CME “Board-by-Board Overview” which is updated biannually. To find relevant CMEs, scroll down to your state and look for any of the following topics:

1. Opioids/prescribing
2. Pain management
3. Palliative care
4. Geriatrics
5. Alzheimer’s Disease
6. Ethics
7. End of life

For more details, FSMB also provides direct links to each state’s board. Physicians and physician assistants across all states can use CAPC’s Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Training for all DEA-Registered Clinicians Learning Pathway to help meet the eight-hour training requirement under the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act. Please also see the blog Leveraging CME Requirements to Improve Palliative Care Delivery for more detailed information.

Several organizations aggregate CE requirements for APRNs, RNs, and LPN/LVNs. Commercial sites such as NursingCenter.com publish a list of requirements by state, along with direct links to most of the governing boards. Palliative care-relevant topic requirements include:

1. Pain/symptom management
2. Controlled substance prescribing
3. Substance abuse
4. Geriatric care
5. Ethics
6. Cultural competency
7. End of life care
8. Dependent adult abuse

APRNs across all states can use CAPC’s Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Training for all DEA-Registered Clinicians Learning Pathway to help meet the eight-hour training requirement under the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act.

The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) has several reports on social work regulations and licensure requirements across multiple license types (e.g., Clinical Social Worker, Bachelor Social Worker, Master Social Worker, etc.) in the U.S. and Canada. Click on “QUICK REPORT CE Requirements” and then select one or more jurisdictions to generate a report on local requirements. ASWB also provides direct links to members’ licensing boards, statutes, and administrative rules as available. Palliative care-relevant topic requirements include:

1. Pain and symptom management
2. Ethics/ethical conduct/etc.
3. Cultural competency/cross-cultural education/etc.
4. Dependent adult abuse

CAPC offers courses that can help clinical health professionals meet many of the requirements described above. These include:

Opioid/Prescribing:

• New! Chronic Pain Strategies for Patients with Serious Illness, full curriculum including comprehensive training in chronic pain management, risk mitigation, assessing opioid misuse, and assisting with access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) for patients living with serious illness.
• Assessing Risk for Opioid Substance Use Disorder
• Opioid Trials: Determining Design, Efficacy, and Safety
• Prescribing an Opioid
• Prescribing Short-Acting Opioids: Four Case Studies
• Monitoring for Opioid Efficacy, Side Effects, and Substance Use Disorder
• Converting from Short-Acting to Long-Acting Opioids
• Prescribing Practice and Opioid Conversions
• Advanced Conversions and Opioid Side Effects

General Pain/Symptom Management:

• Pain Management, full curriculum of 14 courses covering comprehensive pain assessment, choosing the right treatment modality, safe opioid dosing and monitoring, assessing for risk of opioid use disorder, and managing pain in seriously ill patients with concurrent opioid use disorder.
• Symptom Management, full curriculum including assessment and treatment of common sources of misery including shortness of breath, nausea, depression, and constipation.

Other Related Topics (Palliative Care, Geriatrics, Alzheimer’s, Ethics, End-of-Life):

• An In-Depth Look at Palliative Care and its Services
• Communication Skills, full curriculum
• Building Physician Skills in Basic Advance Care Planning, full curriculum
• Best Practices in Dementia Care and Caregiver Support, full curriculum

CAPC’s complete online clinical training curriculum can be found here. For more information, please visit https://www.capc.org/membership/.