They cancelled your favorite conference. So what are you going to do about CE?

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As veterinary conferences get cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus concerns, you may be wondering how you’re going to fit in your required CE, especially if you usually count on getting it in while attending in-person conferences and seminars.

The good news is, it may not be an issue (or at least, not much of one): Many states have temporarily relaxed or even waived CE requirements due to social distancing measurements put in place during the pandemic.

So how much have CE requirements changed due to the pandemic?

“It’s different everywhere,” Judy Rose Lanier, CVPM, CVA, told NEWStat. Lanier, AAHA’s Learning Programs manager, says that while many states have relaxed their CE requirements, no two states are relaxing them the same way.

“Texas has waived their CE requirements for the duration of the emergency declaration period issued by their governor,” she says by way of example. “New York says all CE can be done by self-study for renewals due March 1 through September 1 of 2020.” 

Lanier says some states are waiving CE requirements entirely, while others still require it but allow people to complete it all online, which is a big difference in itself: prepandemic, many states would only accept a limited number of hours of online CE.

You could get lost in the weeds trying to suss it out.

Luckily, there’s help. Lanier says veterinary professionals concerned about completing their CE requirements should check out the American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB) website, which keeps a running list of states (and in the case of Canada, 9 of the 10 provinces) that have modified their CE requirements in response to the pandemic.

But, as the AAVSB notes, the situation is fluid.

For the most up-to-date information, the AAVSB recommends that you check the website of the individual member board that holds sway over the jurisdiction in which you’re licensed—and they can help with that, too: They have an online directory that allows you to look up the website of the member board that oversees CE requirements for both veterinarians and veterinary technicians.

But that begs the question: With everything else going in the world right now, how worried are people about completing their CE?

“The ones who are worried are probably the ones who have to renew their license,” Lanier says with a laugh.

If that’s you, check out the AAVSB.

Photo credit: © iStock/onurdongel

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