What are Nursing Contact Hours?

Image of book coverThe Center offers a variety of continuing education opportunities for aspiring doulas and other professionals who work with pregnant, birthing, and newly postpartum women and their families. Nursing contact hours have been awarded for all eligible programs.

For readers unfamiliar with continuing education contact hours, they are a requirement for certified doulas and many other licensed professionals to keep their credentials active. The DONA-certified doula is required to complete 16 hours of continuing education in every three-year re-certification period. Any program approved for nursing contact hours will also satisfy DONA continuing education requirements for doula re-certification purposes.

Please note, however, that because a program has been approved for nursing contact hours, it does not follow that one must be a nurse in order to take the training! Pre-requisites are listed where they apply, but a medical or professional background is not required in order to become a doula!

If you are unsure whether or not a program will fulfill your unique licensing requirements, please check directly with the folks who licensed you. While many massage therapists, for example, are drawn to doula work, it is my understanding that nursing-approved contact hours do not fulfill massage therapist continuing education requirements.

The University of Michigan Health System’s Educational Services for Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

There is an additional fee of $15, beyond the cost of the training, to process contact hours. The fee helps  cover the significant administrative burden and cost involved with getting programs approved for contact hours, as well as the required post-training follow-up.

“As someone who had taken lactation education training classes before, I thought I wouldn’t learn much new information — I was wrong! Thanks so much!” — Class participant

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