Continuing Education Credit Approval Program for sponsors of CPD activities

For an educational activity to be approved, it must be a planned continuing professional development activity related to medical radiation technology. It must enhance the professional knowledge, skill and judgement of the MRT in providing services to patients, peers, the public and other health care professionals. The subject matter must be comprehensively covered and be related to current or future practice.

Notwithstanding the specific criteria for certain types of CPD, consideration for approval requires that the activity must:

• Be submitted by an eligible sponsor
• Be a minimum of 15 minutes in length
• Be submitted a minimum of 10 business days prior to the date of the scheduled activity*
• Be submitted with payment
• Have clearly stated learning objectives related to the subject matter
• Include speaker credentials relevant to the material being presented
• Include a process to ensure and validate participation/attendance.
• Include a process to issue appropriate documentation of participation

*to allow for sufficient review time, home study courses must be submitted a minimum of 45 days prior to the release date.

CAMRT assigns volunteer MRTs to review educational activities for credit. Up to 3 reviewers may be assigned per activity. Credit is based on a contact hour. A contact hour is equivalent to 50-60 minutes and is awarded one (1) credit.

Activities less than 15 minutes are not eligible for credit.

Educational activities ranging from:

• 15-29 minutes are eligible for 0.25 cr hr / 0.25 Category A credit
• 30 minutes are eligible for 0.5 cr hr / 0.5 Category A credit.
• 31-49 minutes are eligible for 0.75 cr hr / 0.75 Category A credit.
• 50-74 minutes are eligible for 1.0 cr hr / 1.0 Category A credit.
• 75-99 minutes are eligible for 1.5 cr hrs / 1.5 Category A credit
• 100 minutes are eligible for 2.0 cr hrs / 2.0 Category A credit

Hands-on presentations are assigned a credit value that is half the presentation time.

i.e. – a one (1) hour hands-on presentation is assigned 0.5 cr hr / 0.5 Category A credit

Attendance verification is a critical part of the CE activity. It is the sponsor’s responsibility to ensure attendance and an accurate report of the time spent participating in a CE activity is recorded. Sponsors must retain these records of attendance for a period of 5 years in the event of an audit. At the time of application, sponsors of live events will be asked to confirm the chosen tracking mechanism.

The following examples could be used to facilitate attendance monitoring:

• Sign-in and sign-out sheets
• Scanner verification
• Course evaluations
• Stamped attendance verification sheet

NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR TRACKING OF ATTENDANCE AND CERTIFICATES OF ATTENDANCE OF MULTI-SESSION ACTIVITIES

MANDATORY ATTENDANCE:

Tracking: Sponsors mandating attendance for the full activity must have a tracking mechanism in place to validate the participants presence at each session.

Certificate of Attendance: Upon approval, sponsors will be provided with one credit, one reference code and one expiry date for the full event. This information must be included on the participant’s Certificate of attendance.

PARTIAL ATTENDANCE:

Tracking: Sponsors who do not require participants to attend each session must have a tracking mechanism in place to validate each participant’s presence at each session.

Certificate of Attendance: Upon approval, sponsors will be provided with one credit, one reference code and one expiry date for each session of the activity. Sponsors must list the approval deails for each session attended on the Certificate of Attendance.

For more information, please contact cecap@camrt.ca or 800-463-97429 extension 226.

• Live Lectures

A live lecture must be presented within a contained time frame on a specified date(s). Live lectures can be approved for a one-time or repeated presentation and range from 30-60 minutes.

• Conferences

A one day or multiday event presenting various streams, topics and presenters.

• Workshop Programs

1. Hands-on workshops/programs include instruction in clinical procedures and instrumentation where participants receive “hands on” experience on a technique, process, procedure and/or method. Hands-on workshops that are deemed eligible for credit will be awarded half the value of the presentation time.
2. How-to workshops/programs allow for exchange of knowledge through panel discussions and interactive presentations with the attendees.

• Home-study / Self-Learning Programs

Home-study/self-learning programs are learning activities that are packaged and completed by participants on an individual basis, in a distant location from the program sponsor. To be eligible for credit approval, home-study / self-learning programs must include an appropriate assessment mechanism (e.g., quiz, test or examination). The participant must achieve a passing grade of 75% on the post-test to receive credit.

• Webinars

1. Live webinars: online educational presentations during which participating viewers may submit questions and comments. Sponsors must be able to verify attendance before issuing a certificate of attendance (report verifying log in and log out times).
2. Recorded webinars: online educational presentations that have been recorded for ongoing presentations. In order to obtain the credit, a post quiz must be completed by the participant and achieved with a minimum mark of 75%. Access to the recorded webinar as well as a copy of the post quiz must be submitted to CECAP with the application.

• Directed Readings / Journal Clubs 

Scholarly journals that are peer-reviewed may publish continuing education articles that qualify for credit hours and Category A credit. These manuscripts must be supported by a post-test evaluation. The participant must achieve a passing grade of 75% on the post-test to receive the credit. A Journal Club is a group of individuals who get together to critically evaluate and discuss these articles.

The fees differ depending on the type of educational activity.

Fees Below in Effect January 2020

CAMRT provincial organizations will not be charged a fee for their annual general conference credit approvals however all CECAP guidelines must be followed.

Corporate Membership

Corporate sponsorship is available to institutions / organizations sponsoring multiple live MRT related activities in one year. These sponsors pay one fee in advance to submit educational activities (under 3.0 credits each) per year for approval. Activities may be submitted for approval at any time during the 12 month corporate provider agreement year. Corporate sponsors must renew the agreement each year.

Fees remaining in the account after the end of the agreement year are forfeited.

Download Corporate Provider Application Form

As part of its objective to ensure quality continuing professional development (CPD) events are available to MRTs, the CAMRT provides financial support to CPD programs offered by other organizations. Through the initiative, the CAMRT provides up to $500 per program to support the education-related expenses of qualified CPD programs aimed primarily at MRTs. A total of $1,000 is available for the current year.

Organizers of such programs who are interested in applying for support are invited to complete the application or to contact cecap@camrt.ca by telephone 800-463-9729 ext. 226, for further details regarding the process. Please read below for the application process and selection criteria. This will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until the funds are depleted.

Funding Eligibility Criteria

In order to receive financial support, the continuing professional development program must meet the following criteria:

1. The hosting organization must submit the program for review by the CAMRT’s CPD credit assessment process and the program must be assigned at least 5 CPD credits. In order to provide sufficient time for the assessment process, the request for an assessment must be received at least ten working days prior to the start of the scheduled event. The hosting organization will be responsible for the charges related to the assessment.
2. The program must be hosted by an educational institution or a care delivery facility/region. Programs sponsored by physician groups, associations or the private sector will not be considered.
3. The program must be aimed primarily or substantially at MRTs, with MRTs being responsible for planning the program, or at least having significant input in the programs design, and preferably half or more of the speakers must be MRTs.
4. The program must have a verifiable attendance expectation of 30 or more MRTs.

Expectations

In return for the support provided, the organization hosting the CPD event will agree to:

1. Recognize the CAMRT for the financial support provided both in material announcing the event and at the event itself.
2. Provide relevant CAMRT handout materials for participants at the event.

Download the Funding Request form.

CAMRT’s new repository will allow medical radiation technologist (MRTs), and other health care professionals to access a dedicated site where educational opportunities offered by the CAMRT, provincial MRT organizations, individual vendors and other organizations are listed and indexed. Listings will include both live and distance learning activities, both Canadian and international and will be categorized by type, discipline, areas of interest and location.

Sponsors of activities that have been submitted and approved for credit by CECAP have the opportunity to post their activity on this Repository free of charge.

• Conference Approval Application Form
• Corporate Provider Application Form
• Home Study/Education Course Approval Request Form
• Live Lecture Approval Application Form
• MRT Week CECAP Form
• Renewal Application Form
• Seminar/Workshop/Education Day (multiple sessions, same day presentation)
• Webinar Approval Application Form