The National Registry accepts State EMS Office accepted and CAPCE accredited education, education from EMS education programs, and U.S. accredited academic credit or college course. All education must be directly related to EMS patient care. International providers must complete education from the list of approved United States education sources.

For more information on approved education providers, go to www.capce.org or contact your local/state EMS office for state accepted.

Distributive education (DE) is defined by the Commission on Accreditation for Prehospital Continuing Education (CAPCE) as “...an educational activity in which the learner, the instructor, and the educational materials are NOT all present at the same time, and students and instructors are not able to interact in real time. 

The following education courses cannot be applied to continuing education requirements:

Performance of duty either paid or volunteer, clinical rotations which are not part of an initial EMS course program, Instructor methodology courses including all courses to become an instructor or achieve instructor level certifications, management and leadership courses to include fire/EMS administrative courses, preceptor hours including preceptor or field training officer methodologies, or serving as a skills examiner for state or National Registry psychomotor examinations. Most core or general education college courses do not apply directly to EMS topics, such as statistics, chemistry, sociology, languages, and more. Please contact the National Registry if you have a question on an accepted course.