Become an Approved Provider

The ANCC's Nursing Activity Reporting System (NARS) is a web-based portal designed to streamline and support the collection of program and activity data from Accredited Providers, Accredited Approvers, and Approved Providers (Providers approved by an ANCC Accredited Approver Unit). The ANCC uses the information in NARS to evaluate/support provider accreditation criterion which is a part of the educational design process for initial accreditation, reaccreditation, and progress report reviews (refer to Policy 15 of the ANCC NCPD Accredited Provider or Approver Policy and Operations Manual in the learning communities). In addition, the ANCC will use data from NARS to produce annual reports as a service to ANCC Accredited Organizations and other stakeholders. All Providers and Approvers accredited directly by the ANCC are required to use NARS. Providers approved by a Constituent State Nursing Association (C/SNA) or Federal Nursing Service (FNS) (Approved Providers), should check with their Approver Unit for details. First time users will need to use the Forgot Password Button. Steps to complete your ANCC NCPD Annual Report (Due February 15th) Enter all activities that started in the previous year and close all activities that also ended in the previous year. If you provide enduring material activities, update the cumulative learner counts* as of December 31, of the previous year. Review and update your contact information. Accept the terms of the ANCC annual agreement. *If you accept the terms prior to entering your activity data, you can still proceed with entering your activity data. *Cumulative learner counts should include all learners that were awarded contact hours or OB-CE© credit from the start date (which may be prior to the current year) to either the end date of the activity or 12/31/XX, whichever comes first. *For example: If you had 20 learners receive contact hours for a specific enduring activity in 2023, and 20 learners receive contact hours in 2024, your cumulative learner count for annual reporting in 2024 is 40 learners. What activity data are providers required to enter in NARS? There are four activity statuses: Draft, Active, Ready to Close, and Closed. Below is a description of the data fields required for each activity status: DRAFT Title  Format  Start date  End date  ACTIVE  Delivery method (if applies)  Location (if applies)  City, State, Country (if in person)  ANCC Contact Hours amount  Providership (Direct/Joint)  End date not in the past  READY TO CLOSE  Same fields as Active  End date in the past CLOSED  Everything required for Ready to Close  If Joint Providership, at least 1 joint provider name  Commercial Support Yes/No  If Commercial Support = Yes, at least 1 support source, and for each source:  Monetary or In-Kind selection  If Monetary, support amount  Total RN Learner count (can enter a “0” if no learners in this category)  Total APRN Learner count (can enter a “0” if no learners in this category) *If you did not separate out APRN from RN, please put the total number under the RN category Total Other Learner count (can enter a “0” if no learners in this category)  *The fields below are optional and are not currently required to be completed in the NARS system: · Description of Activity · Who can register for this activity · Is there a fee to register for this activity · Provider URL to view activity details · Outcomes What kinds of activity formats can be reported in NARS? ACTIVITY FORMATDEFINITION Live Course A live course is a live activity where the learner participates in real time. A live course is planned as an individual event. A live course can either be classified as an in-person event or live-streamed via an online platform. Examples of a live course could be an annual meeting, one-off conference, or seminar. For events with multiple sessions, such as annual meetings, accredited providers report one activity and calculate the credit by totaling the hours of all educational sessions. To calculate the total numbers of learners, accredited providers report the number of learners that were awarded contact hours or OB-CE© credit for the overall event. If the same live course is held multiple times for different audiences (ex: ACLS trainings held in different locations), then each instance is reported as a separate activity. Regularly Scheduled Series Regularly scheduled series (RSS) is a live activity planned as a series with multiple, ongoing sessions, e.g., offered weekly, monthly, or quarterly. An RSS is primarily planned by and presented to the accredited organization’s professional staff and generally targets the same audience over the whole series. If an RSS is presented live and recorded for the same audience who might happen to miss one or more sessions, then it would still be reported as one RSS, and those learners would be part of the aggregate count of learners that were awarded contact hours or OB-CE© credit. Examples include grand rounds, tumor boards, and morbidity and mortality conferences. If, however, the RSS is recorded and intended for a different, broader audience, then it should be reported as two separate activities – one RSS and one enduring material. The recorded sessions could be offered as a single enduring material or multiple enduring materials as determined by the provider. When reporting RSS activities in NARS, each series should be reported as one activity. Each series should be reported for a maximum of a 12-month period. If this activity is available for longer than 12 months, it should be reported as a separate activity each year in which it is available. In addition, the following guidelines should be used: The number of credits listed for the activity should be for the entire series, not the credit amount per session. Each nurse or other learner is counted as a learner for every session they attend in the series. For example: Nursing Grand Rounds is planned as a 12-month activity from July 1 to June 30 each year. This activity meets for one hour each week. The start date should be entered as 07/01/XXXX and the end date should be entered as 06/30/XXXX. In NARS, the series should be entered as one activity with 52 credits. If 20 nurses received contact hours in each session, total nurse learners would be 1,040 (20 learners/session x 52 sessions) for that single activity. The number of credits listed for the activity should be for the entire series, not the credit amount per session. Please note: live activities where the same content is offered multiple times for different audiences should be reported as separate live courses and not RSS. NARS allows the provider to indicate in NARS if a live course is repeated. Enduring Material An enduring material is an on-demand activity that does not have a specific time or location designated for participation; rather, the participant determines whether and when to complete the activity. The content can be accessed at any point during the lifespan of the activity and there is no specific time designated for participation. Examples include online interactive educational modules, recorded presentations, printed materials, and podcasts. Enduring material activities should be reported in NARS once for the duration of the activity. Enduring materials can be entered with a date range up to three years, with the start date as the first date the activity is available to learners, and the end date as the date of expiration. If the activity is reviewed and renewed, the activity will be re-entered into NARS as a new activity. When reporting the number of learners for an enduring material activity, you should count all learners who received contact hours for all or a portion of the activity and whose participation can be verified. Individuals that downloaded or accessed the activity but did not receive contact hours are not considered learners. Journal-Based CNE A journal-based CNE/CE activity is an activity, planned using the educational design process, where the learner reads one or more articles (or adapted formats for special needs) from a peer-reviewed professional journal. When reporting journal-based activities in NARS, the accredited provider may choose to report journal-based CNE activities as a single activity per journal or as individual articles. The number of learners should equal the total number of individuals who completed the activity and received contact hours. Manuscript Review Manuscript review is an activity, planned using the educational design process, in which a learner participates in the critical review of an assigned journal manuscript during the pre-publication review process of a journal. Test-Item Writing Test-item writing is an activity wherein nurses learn through their contribution to the development (and review) of examinations, or certain peer-reviewed self-assessment activities, by researching, drafting, and defending potential test-items. This activity must be planned using the educational design process. Committee Learning Committee learning is a live activity that involves a learner’s participation in a committee process addressing a subject which, if taught/learned in another format, would be considered within the definition of continuing education. Performance Quality Improvement A performance/quality improvement activity is structured as a three-stage process by which a nurse or group of nurses learn about specific performance measures, assess their practice using the selected performance measures, implement interventions to improve performance related to these measures over a useful interval of time, and then reassess their practice using the same performance measures. Internet Searching and Learning An internet searching and learning activity is an activity in which a nurse engages in self-directed, online learning on topics relevant to their clinical practice from a database whose content has been vetted by an accredited CNE provider. This type of activity is based on a learner identifying a problem in practice and then accessing content in search of an answer from sources on the Internet that are facilitated by a provider. Learning from Teaching Learning from teaching activities are personal learning projects designed and implemented by the learner with facilitation from the accredited provider. This type of activity recognizes the learning that occurs as nurses prepare to teach. Learning from teaching represents a range of activities in which an accredited provider can facilitate practice-based learning and improvement – where the ‘practice’ could be the person’s professional “teaching practice” or “clinical practice” or “research practice.” As is the case for all activities, an accredited (approved) provider’s "Learning from Teaching" activities are expected to be developed in compliance with all applicable requirements. Examples of learning from teaching activities To prepare for teaching a skills workshop at a surgical specialty society meeting, nurse faculty find that they need to learn how to operate a new laparoscopic device that will be used during the workshop. The specialty society, as an accredited provider, facilitates their training on the new device as a learning from teaching activity for the faculty prior to their teaching engagement. An accredited provider makes available a learning from teaching activity for new faculty in the form of “individualized learning projects.” In the activity, the new faculty assess what knowledge and skills they need to teach more effectively, and then the provider makes available training and feedback to improve the new faculty members’ teaching skills. This includes one-to-one mentorship and training with educational experts. When you report learning from teaching in NARS, aggregate your data for learning from teaching for all learners into one activity. The number of learners should equal the number of individuals who were awarded contact hours or OB-CE© credit in this activity. Other/Blended Learning An activity (activities that involve a “live” component in combination with a provider-directed, learner-paced component). Blended activities involve either pre and/or post activity work with a live component. The learner completes the pre and/or post activity work as designed and is notified of the direction to do so per the required disclosure to learner criteria for awarding contact hours given to the learner prior to the live course.