How To Earn Physical Therapy CEUs: State Board and Professional Organization Activities

Have you ever attended a state board meeting? Or a meeting of the APTA or one of it’s state chapters? Or maybe you are even interested in joining an APTA committee. These are some of the lesser known ways that you can earn physical therapy CEUs. While earning CEUs for these activities is probably not the primary motivation for someone to participate in them, it doesn’t hurt!

State Boards Versus Professional Organizations

What is the difference between the state physical therapy boards and professional organizations? The board of each state is responsible for licensing and rule making, including determining physical therapy continuing education requirements for renewal. The professional organizations focus more on advocacy and education.

The APTA website states their mission as follows: “Building a community that advances the profession of physical therapy to improve the health of society.” The APTA “chapters and sections (including academies) strengthen our community at the state level and in special interest areas of our profession”.

The APTA and it’s chapters have little do with licensing other than offering continuing education courses. Generally speaking, if a course is offered by one of these professional organizations, it is considered approved by the state board. Not all state board’s require approval and what is considered approved varies from state to state. As usual, it’s always best to check your state’s rules and regulations to be sure.

The FSBPT (Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy) website states their mission as follows: “To protect the public by providing service and leadership that promote safe and competent physical therapy practice.” The FSBPT is best known by physical therapy professionals for being the organization that is responsible for the NPTE, the exam that allows PTs and PTAs to become eligible for licensure by the state boards.

State Board Activities

Earning physical therapy CEUs may be as easy as attending a board meeting, most of which you can attend online. For example, in California you can earn 2 CEUs per meeting, with a maximum of 8 CEUs per renewal period.

You can also earn CEUs by being a board member. This does require more commitment but is also an excellent way to directly impact policies in your state, many of which are related to criteria for licensure and continued competency standards.

Professional Organization Activities

Similarly to board activities, the easiest way to earn CEUs through participation in a professional organization, whether it be the APTA, a state chapter of the APTA or the FSBPT, is to attend a meeting.

If you decide to become more involved, you may be able to earn CEUs for participation on a specific committee. Again, this is more work, but if you are interested enough to participate at that level, the CEUs are more likely a bonus and not your sole motivation for joining a committee.

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How Do I Know if I Can Earn CEUs for These Activities?

The following is current to the best of our knowledge at the time of this writing.

States that allow CEUs for attending state board meetings:

• California
• Delaware
• Florida
• Virginia
• Washington

States that allow CEUs for attending professional organization meetings:

• Delaware
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• Nevada
• Oregon

States that allow CEUs for participating on some type of committee:

• Colorado
• Hawaii
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Michigan
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Wisconsin
• Washingon
• Wyoming

As with all things related to continuing education, the most accurate answers to questions about what qualifies for CEU credit and how many credits you can earn per activity can be found in the rules and regulations documents for each state. You can find these on the state board websites which we have linked on our Physical Therapy CEU requirements page.

The conversion rates and maximum CEUs allowed are very well spelled out in some states, more vague in others. Contacting the state board for clarification is always recommended.

How Can CEU Keeper Help Me With This?

Finding the details can be confusing, so feel free to Contact Us with questions and we'll point you in the right direction to find out if you can earn continuing education units in your state through these activities.

Once you know, you can stay organized and in compliance by tracking all of your CEUs and storing the supporting documentation with our cloud based CEU tracker.

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