Texas Physical Therapists: CEU to CCU Verbiage Change
Just when you finally understand the meaning of Continuing Education (CE), the Texas Board of Physical Therapy Examiners (TBPTE) changes the definition. The term Continuing Education has now been replaced with Continuing Competence (CC). Honestly, the modification is a “You say To-MAY-to, I say To-MAW-to” situation. Not much is different, so don’t let the new wording overwhelm you. In fact, we bet you’ll like the new system better.
Now, instead of needing 3 CEUs as a PT or 2 CEUs as a PTA, you will need 30 CCUs or 20 CCUs, respectively. Keep in mind that 10 Contact Hours, 1 CEU and 10 CCUs are exactly the same. Basically, no more conversion takes place – CCUs are literally the number of contact hours required. Here’s an example: A 10 hour course from an online provider is equivalent to 10 CCUs. The TBPTE simply took out the multiplication step of the process. A positive change? Well Yes! Anything that makes PT CE’s easier is always a bonus in our book.
The term Continuing Education still exists, but is now a subset of Continuing Competence Activities. Continuing Education “includes traditional on-site programs, paper or web-based home-study programs [online continuing education], in-services and conferences,” (http://www.ecptote.state.tx.us). Other activities that fall underneath Continuing Competence Activities, but do not appropriately fit into the Continuing Education category, include “college courses, internships, research articles,” etc. (http://www.ecptote.state.tx.us). Essentially, this translates into a few more options to satisfy your Continuing Competency requirement for the State of Texas. Like I said, “To-MAY-to, To-MAW-to”.
So bottom line, what do you really need to know? Well, know that you can keep on keeping on the way you have in the past. If you are awarded credit by a provider that uses the former terminology of CE, rather than CC, the board will still accept the certificate. If you have any questions regarding the terminology change, please refer to the TBPTE’s Newsletter: http://www.ecptote.state.tx.us/_private/PT_July_2010_newsltr.pdf. It will help you “ketchup” on the new lingo!
This material was provided by Lindsey, from HomeCEUConnection.com:
https://www.homeceuconnection.com/ceu/home
The information above is correct, to the best of our knowledge, as of November 2010.
Please check with your state board to verify, as rules are always changing.
HomeCEUConnection.com offers the mandatory ethics course for TX PTs/PTAs.
TX PTs/PTAs can satisfy their entire requirement through HomeCEUConnection.com
