What is the National Continued Competency Program?

The National Continued Competency Program (NCCP) was constructed using methodology similar to that of the American Board of Medical Specialties requirements and streamlines the recertification process into three strategic categories of continuing education: National, Local, and Individual.

The National Continued Competency Program encourages Nationally Certified EMS personnel to pursue life-long education while also providing state and local agencies the freedom to customize continuing education to meet local operational needs.

The National Registry continues to make improvements and we were one of the many organizations that came together to support the development of evidence-based guidelines. 

As part of the NCCP 2025 initiative, we partnered with the Prehospital Guidelines Consortium (PGC) who will provide open access to and/or summaries of all identified EMS evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) meeting the National Academy of Medicine criteria for high-quality guidelines. These evidence-based guidelines are peer-reviewed documents, provide a summary of the relevant medical literature and offer assistance in deciding many aspects of clinical practice.

The PGC recommends those who instruct individuals to incorporate evidence-based guidelines into their education and practice. The National Registry will include the use of these EBGs as part of our item writing development and we strongly encourage EMS Clinicians to incorporate these (EBGs) into the national component of the NCCP when recertifying. 

Locate the “2022 Systematic Review of Prehospital Evidence Based Guidelines” at: https://prehospitalguidelines.org/prehospital-ebgs-new/. The systematic review will be updated every two years and will be made widely available for all to reference and utilize.  

The PGC also offers additional resources on their website, including a reading list of EBGs which can be found at: https://prehospitalguidelines.org/ebg-resources/ 

 

 
The national component of the NCCP constitutes 50% of the total recertification requirements. Topics included in the national reflect current trends in evidence-based medicine, scope of practice changes and position papers from numerous associations involved with EMS research. There is an additional focus on those patient presentations that have a low frequency but high criticality.

National Component Requirements

Expiration dates through Sept. 30, 2025: Download the 2016 NCCP Model (PDF)
Expiration dates after March 31, 2026: Download the 2025 NCCP Model (PDF)

The local component constitutes 25% of the total recertification requirements. Specific topic requirements may be defined by your specific state, region or local agency. Examples of local content topics typically include state or local protocols, areas of specalization, or tasks that require additional focus based on QA/QI. The local component allows national recertification requirements to be adapted to the needs of the state and local agencies. If your state, region, or local agency does not specify topics, the content is considered flexible.
The individual constitutes 25% of the recertification requirements. Registrants are free to take any state or CAPCE approved EMS-related education.
 
Level
National
State/ Local
Individual
Total Hours
Paramedic 30 15 15 60
AEMT 25 12.5 12.5 50
EMT 20 10 10 40
EMR 8 4 4 16