Guidelines for Arranging AHEC/SON Continuing Education Programs
Our office is pleased to be able to assist regional AHEC Nursing personnel by providing speakers to teach continuing education programs throughout the state. To smooth the process of setting up AHEC/SON CE experiences, we present the following guidelines, which describe how regional AHECs and the SON cooperatively administer these programs.
Finding and contracting with speakers:
- Review this online SON/AHEC Speakers and Programs Catalogue to match faculty expertise with your regional needs. If you need assistance with identifying potential speakers, please call our office so that we can assist you.
- Once you have decided on a particular program or speaker, please fill in the Program Request Form and click on the submit button. Once we receive the request we will contact a potential speaker to see if he/she would be available to teach for you. At that point we would provide you with their contact information.
- You may then contact the faculty member directly to discuss details of the program and arrive at a mutually agreeable date. When a speaker has agreed to teach, contact the SON AHEC Office at once. Our office will obtain all of the information needed for the agreement from the host AHEC and will immediately generate an Agreement to Provide an Educational Offering between the regional AHEC, the speaker, and the SON AHEC Office.
- A copy of that agreement will be sent to you as an email attachment. Please review it carefully. If the agreement seems satisfactory to you please type your name and date at the bottom of the agreement and return to the SON AHEC office for the faculty member’s signature and date.
- If changes are necessary, please submit them to the SON AHEC office so that you may receive a revised agreement to be signed. Do not sign an inaccurate agreement.
- Please note: Until the agreement has been signed by the faculty member and regional AHEC and received in the SON AHEC office, the program has not been confirmed.
Making program and travel arrangements:
- You, as host AHEC, make all program presentation arrangements for speakers and requests any materials that are required for CE approval. The SON makes all travel arrangement including automobiles and Med Air flights.
- If faculty members ask you to make travel arrangements for them, please refer them back to our office.
- If faculty members travel by Med Air, you as host AHEC will need to provide ground transportation from the airport to the CE site.
- While travel arrangements are the responsibility of the SON AHEC Office, we prefer that you, as host AHEC make hotel reservations for a speaker; though we can make those reservations if necessary. However, please speak with our office before making a reservation. No AHEC may pay for the hotel room since that is a SON expense. The speaker must charge the hotel room to a personal credit card and our office will reimburse that person for those costs.
Marketing:
- Please put the following statement on all marketing materials: “This program is being offered in cooperation with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing”.
Enrollments, Cancellations and Postponements:
- In general, the minimum enrollment is 15 participants in non-rural and 10 participants in rural areas. However, it may be possible to offer a program that is under-enrolled. Please contact our office prior to canceling any programs.
- If it is necessary to cancel or postpone a program, notify our office at least three days in advance of the scheduled date and let us know why the change is necessary.
Wrapping it all up:
- For programs which occur prior to June 1: Within one month of program completion, please send our office the following information: an agenda, a program brochure, a typed participant roster with four digit social security numbers and participant’s address, county and workplace, the composite faculty evaluations, and a program purpose. (Information requested may be included on the program brochure.)
- For programs scheduled in June: It is essential that the information described is sent so that it arrives in our office no later than June 25. If our office does not receive these materials by that date, our ability to count those program hours may be compromised and faculty reimbursement may be affected.
Important Points:
No full-time state employed teaching faculty can receive honoraria for teaching CE during the academic year, which begins mid-August and ends in mid-May.