As a prerequisite for registration, respiratory care practitioners are required to complete continuing education. Current requirements for respiratory care practitioners are summarized below. If you would like to review the current rule, these requirements are currently listed the Texas Administrative Code, Title 22, Part 9, Chapter 186, Rule 186.10, located here.

Respiratory care practitioners need to complete at least 24 credits/hours of continuing education (CE) every 24 months (24 month timeline goes by the biennial registration period, not the calendar year). A certificate holder must report during registration if she or he has completed the required CE during the previous two years (biennial registration period).  

New Human Trafficking Prevention Requirement

House Bill 2059 (86^th Legislature) requires physicians, physician assistants, and any licensee of the TMB’s advisory boards or committees that provide direct patient care, to complete a human trafficking prevention course approved by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). This requirement applies to the renewal of a license on or after September 1, 2020.

HHSC is the approving body for the human trafficking prevention requirement. HB 2059 requires HHSC to approve training courses on human trafficking, including at least one that is free of charge, post a list of approved trainings on its website and update the list of approved trainings as necessary.

HHSC now has an approved course available, which is free of charge, that satisfies the requirements for all licensees impacted by HB 2059.

•       See HHSC's Health Care Practitioner Human Trafficking Training page to access the approved courses and for more information about this requirement.

Documentation of CE courses shall be made available to the Board upon request, but should not be submitted with the registration. Random audits will be made to assure compliance.

If you have any questions regarding continuing education requirements, please email us at registrations@tmb.state.tx.us .

Respiratory Care Practitioner CE Requirements (Per Biennium)

24 total hours acceptable CE required per biennium (2 year registration period)

• At least 12 contact hours must be in traditional courses. The remainder of contact hours may be in non-traditional courses or from passage of examinations detailed below under “Acceptable Continuing Education”

• At least 2 contact hours must be in ethics. These ethics hours may be completed via traditional courses or non-traditional courses.

• Of the 12 non-traditional courses, a course in human trafficking prevention approved by the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission must be completed. The board shall credit completion of the human trafficking prevention course toward required ethics hours mention above.
  • See HHSC's Health Care Practitioner Human Trafficking Training page to access the approved courses and for more information about this requirement.

• Those who hold temporary permits are not subject to these continuing education requirements.

• A retired respiratory care practitioner on the voluntary charity care status only required to complete reduced CE requirements equal to half of the number of CE hours required for renewal for a certified respiratory care practitioner.

• One CE or contact hour activity is defined as 60 minutes attendance and participation in an acceptable continuing education experience.

• No CE hours may be carried over from one renewal period to another renewal period.

• A practitioner who also holds a current license, registration, or certification in another health care profession or a current license, registration, or certification as a respiratory care practitioner in another state, territory, or country may satisfy the CE requirements for renewal in Texas with hours counted toward renewal of another license, registration, or certification as long as the hours meet all current requirements.

Acceptable Continuing Education

Continuing education must be in skills relevant to the practice of respiratory care and must have a direct benefit to patients and clients and shall be acceptable if the experience falls in one or more of the following categories:

Traditional CE

• Provider-directed educational activities directly related to the profession of respiratory care that require the learner and provider to interact in real time, including, but not limited to, live lectures, courses, seminars, workshops, review sessions, or distance learning activities such as webcasts, videoconferences, and audio conferences in which the learner can interact with the provider.

• Traditional CE must be approved, recognized, accepted, or assigned CE credit by a professional organization or association (such as TSRC, NBRC or AARC) or offered by a federal, state, or local government entity.

Non-traditional CE

• Self-directed study directly related to the profession of respiratory care that does not include interaction between the learner and the instructor. A test at the conclusion of the self-directed study is required.

• Non-traditional CE must be approved, recognized, accepted, or assigned CE credit by a professional organization or association (such as TSRC, NBRC or AARC) or offered by a federal, state, or local government entity.

• Completion of one academic semester unit or hour that is a part of the curriculum of a respiratory care education program or a similar education program in another health-care related field offered by an accredited institution shall be credited 15 contact hours of non-traditional CE.

• A respiratory care practitioner who teaches or instructs a CE course shall be credited one (1) contact hour in non-traditional CE for each contact hour actually taught. 
  • CE credit will be given only once for teaching a particular course.

• Passage of an official credentialing or proctored self-evaluation examination, as follows:
  • NBRC Therapist Multiple Choice (TMC) credentialing or re-credentialing examination - 10 contact hours;
  • NBRC Clinical Simulation Examination (credentialing or re-credentialing) - 10 contact hours;
  • NBRC Neonatal/Pediatric Respiratory Care Specialist (NPS) examination - 10 contact hours;
  • NBRC Adult Critical Care Specialist (ACCS) examination - 10 contact hours;
  • NBRC Sleep Disorder Specialist (SDS) examination - 10 contact hours;
  • NBRC Certified Pulmonary Function Technologist (CPFT) examination or NBRC Registered Pulmonary Function Technologist (RPFT) examination - 10 contact hours
  • Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists (BRPT) registration examination - 10 contact hours
  • National Asthma Educator Certification Board (NAECB) Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C) examination (credentialing or re-credentialing) – 10 contact hours
  • Advanced cardiac life-support (ACLS), pediatric advanced life-support (PALS), neonatal advanced life-support (NALS) or neonatal resuscitation program (NRP), basic trauma life-support, or pre-hospital trauma life-support - 8 contact hours;
  • Examinations listed above may be counted only once for credit. If an initial credentialing examination is counted towards fulfillment of CE requirements, the same examination taken later for re-credentialing purposes may only be applied towards fulfillment of CE requirements once every three (3) renewal periods.

Reporting of Continuing Education

Documentation of CE courses shall be made available to the Board upon request, but should not be submitted with the registration. Random audits will be made to assure compliance.

Exemptions

A licensee may request in writing an exemption* for the following reasons:

• the licensee's catastrophic illness;
• the licensee's military service of longer than one year's duration outside the United States;
• the licensee's residence of longer than one year's duration outside the United States; or
• good cause shown submitted in writing by the licensee that gives satisfactory evidence to the board that the licensee is unable to comply with the requirement for continuing education.

*Exemptions are reviewed on a case by case basis and must be requested in writing at least 30 days prior to the expiration date of the license.  An exemption may not exceed one registration period, but may be renewed, subject to approval.

RCP Continuing Education Exemption Request Form

• Those who hold temporary permits are not subject to these continuing education requirements.

• Those who hold temporary permits are not subject to these continuing education requirements.