(revised January 2005)
The recertification process is essentially that of maintaining certification (demonstrating continued competency to practice). The recertification program strives to serve the profession, the health care industry, and consumers fairly and observe all relevant law.
It is the aim of the recertification program to:
Assure that the quality of care provided to patients and families is of the highest caliber.
Motivate the recertification applicants to achieve the expertise that is necessary for meeting the changes and challenges in their practice.
Increase accountability.
Foster creativity and autonomy.
Increase participation in decisions that affect job responsibilities.
Attract and retain competent health unit coordinator personnel by awarding recognition for furthering their education..
Encourage self-development and recognition of self-worth.
Certified health unit coordinators who have current certification status may recertify. Current certification status means that one's certification has not expired or been revoked.
Note: the NAHUC Certification Board in its sole discretion may adopt additional eligibility requirements.
Contact Hours Option - Meet eligibility requirements for CHUC recertification and acquire 36 NAHUC contact hours over a three-year period. Submit recertification application and fee.
Certification Exam Option - Meet eligibility requirements for NAHUC recertification and successfully complete the NAHUC Certification Examination. Exam Candidate Handbooks are available from the NAHUC office and on this web site. Click here to access Certification Exam Handbook
Recertification requires 36 NAHUC contact hours during a three-year recertification cycle. It is the certified health unit coordinator's responsibility to collect, save, and submit all documentation of recertification activities. . Applicants pulled for audit will be asked to submit documentation of all contact hour activities.
Recertification Application Form
Recertification By NAHUC Contact Hours
$75 for non-member
$50 for NAHUC member - copy of membership card must be included with
recertification application.
Acceptable forms of payment for recertification include money order or MasterCard or VISA. A $5 processing charge will be added to credit card payments.
Recertification By Exam
Current Exam Fee - see candidate handbook.
*All fees are non-refundable. NAHUC nor the NAHUC Certification Board are not responsible for correspondence lost in the mail.
NAHUC certification may be revoked for any of the following reasons:
Falsification of any information requested by the NAHUC Certification Board including information on the certification and recertification applications
Failure to pay fees
Cheating on the examination
Failure to recertify or meet the recertification audit requirements
Violations of any other polices and procedures of the Certification Board
The appeals process is available to individuals seeking amendment of a decision revoking NAHUC certification. An Appeals Panel conducts the process. The Appeals Panel will review the case at its next appeals review. The decision of the Appeals Panel will be final. Failure of the examination may not be appealed.
It is the responsibility of the certified health unit coordinator to notify the NAHUC Certification Board of any changes in name and/or address during the certification period. Failure to do so may result in not receiving important information. It is the individual's responsibility to recertify at the proper time.
NAHUC Activities/Programs - Defined as any continuing education activity that has been pre-approved for a designated number of NAHUC contact hours.
Activity: NAHUC Questionnaires
Contact Hours Awarded: 2
How to: Follow instructions published in the Coordinator or on the web site. Questionnaires in the Coordinator are for NAHUC members only. NAHUC members and non-members can submit web questionnaires. Click here to access the web questionnaires
Activity: NAHUC Lending Library
Contact Hours Awarded: As indicated on order form Click here for Lending Library order form
How to: Order and watch video. Complete and submit post-test as directed to earn contact hours.
Activity: NAHUC Conference/Seminars/Workshops including Institutional Providers, Chapter Providers
Contact Hours Awarded: As indicated by sponsor
How to: Earn NAHUC contact hours by attending educational offerings sponsored by Institutional Providers, Chapter Providers, and other facilities approved to award NAHUC contact hours.
Activity: Create A Contact Hour Questionnaire
Contact Hours Awarded: 6
How to: Create questionnaire according to written guidelines and submit to NAHUC Education Board. Click here for guidelines for writing a questionnaire
Activity: Write and publish an educational article in professional journals/books
Contact Hours Awarded: 12
How to: Submit copy of published article to the NAHUC Education Board. Article must adhere to the NAHUC Education Board Guidelines for Publishing an Educational Article and the publication guidelines of the journal in which article is being published.
Activity: Continuing Education Presentations
Contact Hours Awarded: 12
How to: Develop and present an education presentation. Presentation must be pertaining to the certification exam content outline. Submit the following: presenter’s vitae, date of presentation, presentation description, objectives and reference(s) used to develop presentation and (if available) summary of evaluations from presentation.
Non-NAHUC Activities/Programs - Defined as any activity that does not have pre-approved NAHUC contact hours
Activity: Non-NAHUC sponsored Continuing Education include workshops, videos and other health care facility sponsored continuing education
Contact Hours Awarded: Varies - activities will be awarded contact hours according to established conversion criteria: 50 minutes equals 1 NAHUC contact hour.
How to: Submit proof of attendance/completion with application for approval of non-NAHUC activities.
Application for Approval of Non-NAHUC Educational Activities
Activity: College Courses
Contact Hours Awarded: College credits will be granted NAHUC contact hours per established conversion criteria: 1 credit hour equal 3 NAHUC contact hours. Please note: only 33% (12 contact hours) of the total contact hours can come from this category.
How to: Submit college transcript with application for academic credit of college courses.
Application for College Credit
All educational activities must be related to the NAHUC Certification Exam Content Outline. Programs that relate only to the internal policies of one institution, hospital orientation, department meetings, CPR and mandatory annual fire/safety programs ARE NOT APPLICABLE towards recertification.
NAHUC Certification Exam Content Revised
The Job Task Analysis has been completed and the new Certification Examination content outline has been approved by the Certification Board Directors. Target date for implementing the new Certification Examination is February 1, 2005. Exam candidates planning to take the exam after February 1, 2005 should prepare according to the revised NAHUC Certification Exam Content Outline below.
I. Transcription of Orders (35%)
A. Processing
1. Check charts for orders that need to be transcribed
2. Interpret medical symbols, abbreviations, and terminology
3. Clarify questionable orders
4. Prioritize orders and tasks
5. Process orders according to priority
6. Enter orders on a kardex
7. Enter orders on patient treatment plan
8. Initiate pathway protocols
9. Schedule diagnostic tests and procedures
10. Initiate and follow test preparation procedures
11. Enter orders onto a medication administration record
12. Enter patient charges
13. Process orders for diagnostic and therapeutic tests and procedures
14. Process nursing treatment orders
15. Prepare surgical charts
16. Process post-operative charts
17. Process medication orders
18. Process orders for parenteral fluids
19. Recognize order categories (i.e. standing, one-time, prn, and stat)
B. Notification
1. Notify staff of new orders
2. Notify and document consulting physicians of consult requests
3. Indicate on the order sheet that each order has been processed
4. Sign off orders (e.g. signature, title, date, and time)
5. Flag charts for co-signature
C. Requests
1. Request services from ancillary departments
2. Request services from support departments
3. Request supplies and equipment
4. Request patient information from external facilities
II. Coordination of Health Unit (47%)
A. Admissions
1. Label and assemble patient charts upon admission
2. Obtain patient information prior to admission
3. Assign beds to patients coming into the unit
4. Inform nursing staff of patient admissions, transfers, discharges and returning surgical patients
5. Process patient registration
B. Patient results processing
1. Receive diagnostic test results
2. Notify physicians of diagnostic test results
3. Report diagnostic test results to nursing staff
C. Discharges/Transfers
1. Assemble necessary forms and perform clerical tasks for patients being transferred to an external facility
2. Prepare patient charts and perform clerical tasks for discharge or transfer to other units within the health facility
3. Notify appropriate departments and individuals when patients are discharged (i.e., home, expired, AMA, transferred, etc.)
4. Disassemble patient charts, put in appropriate order, and send to medical records office upon expiration or discharge.
5. Schedule follow-up appointments
6. Schedule appointments for diagnostic work at other facilities
7. Follow organ procurement procedures
8. Schedule ground transportation for patients
D. Unit Responsibilities/Clerical
1. Maintain a supply of chart forms
2. Maintain stock of patient care supplies and equipment
3. Maintain stock of clerical and desk supplies
4. Maintain patient charts by thinning and adding forms as needed
5. File forms and reports
6. Maintain unit bulletin board
7. Maintain policy and procedures manuals
8. Monitor patients’ off-unit locations
9. Arrange for maintenance and repair of equipment
E. Reports and Record Keeping
1. Report unit activities to on-coming shift
2. Maintain patient census logs
3. Record patient acuity
4. Record unit/department statistics
5. Graph and chart information onto appropriate forms
6. Maintain patient census boards
7. Maintain on-call schedules
8. Maintain patient assignment board
9. Perform quality assurance on charts (i.e. verify that chart forms are filed and labeled correctly, all orders have been transcribed, allergies are noted in appropriate places, prepare incident reports, etc.)
10. Reconcile patient charges/credits
11. Retrieve test results
12. Recopy medication administration records
13. Recopy Kardex/patient treatment plan
14. Inventory unit equipment
F. Personnel management
1. Orient new staff members to the unit
2. Precept new or student unit coordinators
3. Communicate facility policies to visitors, patients and staff (i.e. visiting hours, no smoking, etc.)
4. Maintain staff assignment logs
5. Assist with unit staffing
6. Greet patients, physicians, visitors, and facility staff who arrive on the unit
7. Respond to patient, physician, visitor, and facility staff requests and complaints
G. Safety and Security
1. Maintain a hazard-free work environment
2. Maintain unit security
3. Participate in emergency and disaster plans
4. Respond to cardiac or respiratory arrests
5. Initiate call to cardiac or respiratory arrests
6. Comply with regulatory agency guidelines/rules
H. Confidentiality and Patient Rights
1. Screen telephone calls and visitor requests for patient information to protect patient confidentiality
2. Restrict access to patient information (i.e. charts, computer)
3. Assist with Advanced Directives documentation
4. Demonstrate knowledge of informed consent
III. Equipment/Technical Procedures (15%)
A. Communication
1. Communicate with patients and staff via intercom
2. Send and receive documents via fax machine
3. Contact personnel via telecommunications systems (i.e. pagers, cell phones)
4. Answer and process unit telephone calls
B. Computers
1. Maintain computer census (i.e. ADT functions)
2. Retrieve diagnostic result from computers
3. Follow established computer down-time procedures
4. Enter orders via computers
5. Schedule appointments via computers
6. Prepare documents using computer software
7. Generate reports using computers
8. Operate computers safely and correctly
9. Troubleshoot problems with computers
C. Monitoring Systems
1. Register patient into monitor system
2. Print and mount strips
D. Miscellaneous Equipment
1. Duplicate documents using a copy machine
2. Transport patient specimens, supplies, and medication using pneumatic tubes
IV. Professional Development (3%)
A. Training
1. Attend in-service training sessions
2. Attend department. staff or health unit coordinator meetings
B. Individual development
1. Review job related publications (e.g., NAHUC Standards of Practice, journals)
2. Review facility specific publications, memos, policies
3. Pursue and maintain certification
Last Revised: 01/20/05