The AAPACN Nurse Assessment Coordinator Work Study and Salary Report provides representative data of NAC average completion times for the MDS by assessment type and the time factors affecting accurate MDS assessment. This report enables facility leaders to reduce turnover, improve recruitment, and staff appropriately.

AAPACN’s Body of Knowledge for the Role of Director of Nursing Services in Long-Term Care is an essential reference for facility managers and a must-have guide for DONs who wish to further their expertise and career in the LTC nursing field. The Body of Knowledge guide identifies, defines, and measures the core competencies required of DNSs practicing in SNFs. Organized by seven standards and competency domains, the Body of Knowledge guide outlines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for successful accomplishment of the tasks related to each domain.

Use the Body of Knowledge guide to: 

• Successfully hire and train your facility’s next DNS
• Learn what you need to know to fulfill your role as a DNS
• Demonstrate your competencies as a DNS to staff and superiors

Developed and reviewed by more than a dozen nurse leader experts, the 46-page PDF download includes a comprehensive DNS career map.

The risk for functional decline in long-term care residents is a serious issue that often leads to falls, pressure ulcers/injuries, weight loss, depression, and other negative outcomes. To ensure quality outcomes and to comply with federal regulation, nursing facilities must have a comprehensive and effective restorative program that encourages each resident’s highest level of function. However, many facilities struggle to implement and manage any consistent restorative program. AAPACN’s Guide to a Successful Restorative Program will provide the knowledge and tools you need to start and maintain an effective restorative program in your facility with ease and confidence.

*Updated May 2024.

Use the Guide to Successful Restorative Programs to:

• Identify and overcome barriers to effective restorative programming in your facility
• Select appropriate candidates for restorative programming
• Recruit available resources in your facility, such as a program lead, activities director, and more
• Write restorative programs with measurable goals
• Analyze resident performance for effective periodic evaluations

The Guide to Successful Restorative Programs includes:

• Interactive PDF manual
• Tools and algorithms to help you initiate your program
• Comprehensive examples of restorative goals, interventions, evaluations, and care planning to adapt to paper or electronic software
• Additional resources to help you create the best restorative program and maintain it successfully in your facility

To help nurse assessment coordinators and facility staff improve their confidence in managing PDPM, AAPACN’s PDPM Game Plan delivers 80+ pages of interactive, downloadable tools, checklists, and resources all in one convenient PDF resource.

Put these tools to work for you today!

• PDPM Calculation Worksheet to guide you in the determination of HIPPS codes
• Interrupted Stay Policy Tracking tool to help you and your team track interrupted stays and ensure correct billing for days not covered by Medicare
• PDPM Case-Mix Group Conversion to HIPPS Characters Tool to help you gather the HIPPS characters under each payment group for the HIPPS code you’ll need to identify a SNF resident’s payment classification
• Tools and considerations for when to complete an interim payment assessment (IPA)
• Top five mistakes made when assigning ICD-10-CM codes in the SNF so you can avoid them
• PDPM Admission Checklist Tool to help you collect information needed at the time of admission
• Tools to help you audit billing and reimbursement
• Detailed review of the risk of payment penalty for late or missed assessments under PDPM

Updated November 2023

Experience all the education from the AAPACN 2025 Conference. The AAPACN 2025 Conference Recording Bundle includes all 30 education sessions and three general catalyst sessions featuring LTPAC subject-matter experts bundled into a recorded package for on-demand learning. Session recordings are a compilation of audio and video recordings from the live session, plus any Q&A that followed – all accessible in your AAPACN Learner Dashboard for up to one year.

 The general catalyst sessions included are as follows:

• Beat the Odds| Sandy Gennaro, Motivational Storyteller
• Tactical Brain Training® | Gina Rollo White, Mindfulness Educator
• Rounding the Final Turn with AAPACN Experts | Panel discussion moderated by AAPACN Chief Nursing Officer, Amy Stewart

The education sessions included are as follows:

• APU Items: Impact of Dashes, MDS Coding, and NHSN on PDPM Rate  
• Learn and Avoid: Common Probe Audit Findings
• What Every Administrator Wants Their Nursing Leadership to Know: Mastering CBC
• From Data Collection to Impact: The MDS as a Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
• Harnessing AI for Enhanced Healthcare Education: Lessons Learned
• Managed Care Makeover: What’s New and What’s Next in 2025
• Medical Review and the Contractors that Perform Them
• Utilizing Behavioral Health Program for Successful Survey Outcomes
• MDS & DNS Relationship: How to Win!
• Facilitating Interdisciplinary Contribution to Critical/Key Components of MDS Assessments
• 10 of the Most Confusing MDS Coding Questions
• PDPM Unveiled: Strategies for MDS 3.0 Success in the Evolving Healthcare Landscape
• Enhancing Your Recruitment and Retention Plan to Align with the Facility Assessment
• Care Plans Reimagined: Innovate for Impact
• The Best Defense Comes From The Chart: Using Best Practices to Fortify Documentation Surrounding Adverse Events
• Keeping Your MDS Coding ACTIVE
• From the Starting Gate to the Finish Line: Best Practices for Nursing Home Reimbursement Compliance
• Practical Approaches to Managing Behaviors: Person-Centered Care Planning
• Welcoming the Resident and Family as Part of the Resident-Centered Care Planning Team
• Do You Know Your Discharge Function Score?
• Decoding I0020B: Identifying the Primary Diagnosis
• Pardon the Interruption
• Navigating the Survey Process and Avoiding Rough Seas
• IQIES: What Does It Even Stand for and How Can I Use It?
• Quality Measures: Be in the Winner’s Circle
• Achieve the Medicare Triple Crown: Excellence in Quality of Care, Regulatory Compliance, and Optimal Reimbursement
• Rolling-Out the Red Carpet for New Long-Term Resident Admissions and Employees
• Revitalize Your Restorative Nursing Program for Positive Outcomes, Compliance, and Reimbursement!
• Section GG: Not for the Faint Hearted
• Enhancing Behavioral Health Capacity in Nursing Facilities with the COE-NF 

Experience the education from the AAPACN 2025 Quality Virtual Conference in a recorded bundle packaged for on-demand learning. Purchase the full three-day bundle, packed with all 12 education sessions and three panel discussions featuring MDS and quality subject-matter experts. Or select an individual track – novice, intermediate, or expert – featuring four education sessions and one panel discussion from that individual day. All session recordings are a compilation of voice over PowerPoint and audio recordings from the live virtual event, plus any Q&A that followed - all accessible in your AAPACN Learner Dashboard for up to one year.

In addition to three panel discussions, the 12 education sessions included are as follows:

• Off to the Races: Winning the Scripted Interview with the IDT (Novice)
• Out of the Gate: Managing Weight Loss Before It Derails Your Quality Measures (Novice)
• Staying on Track: Managing Section N, Medications (Novice)
• iQIES: What Every User Needs to Know (Novice)
• Why Section GG has Become the Most Important Section on the MDS (Intermediate)
• Outpacing Skin Integrity Risk: Strategic Approaches to MDS Accuracy and Wound Care Compliance (Intermediate)
• From Assessment to Action: Avoiding Costly MDS and Care Planning Deficiencies (Intermediate)
• SNF Audit Ready: Navigating Reviews, ADRs, and Appeals (Intermediate)
• Change in the Stars: How the Health Inspection Calculation Changes Will Impact Facilities (Expert)
• How Does the Discharge Function Score Function? (Expert)
• Antipsychotic Measures, Appendix PP, and the Schizophrenia Audit: Tying Them Together (Expert)
• Mastering Medicare Compliance: Expert Strategies for Coverage Support (Expert)

The AAPACN 2025 Quality Virtual Conference Recording Bundle provides the opportunity to earn up to 15.0 ANCC continuing education hours (CEs) for viewing all 15 sessions. Learners must view at least 80% of all videos and complete the associated evaluations to receive the contact hours. No partial credit will be awarded. Contact hours will be awarded for this activity until September 9, 2028.

Experience the education from the AAPACN 2025 Quality Virtual Conference: Day 3 – Expert Track in a recorded bundle packaged for on-demand learning. The Expert Track bundle includes four education sessions and one panel discussion featuring MDS and quality subject-matter experts from that individual day. All session recordings are a compilation of voice over PowerPoint and audio recordings from the live virtual event, plus any Q&A that followed - all accessible in your AAPACN Learner Dashboard for up to one year.

 In addition to the panel discussion, the four education sessions included are as follows:

• Change in the Stars: How the Health Inspection Calculation Changes Will Impact Facilities
• How Does the Discharge Function Score Function?
• Antipsychotic Measures, Appendix PP, and the Schizophrenia Audit: Tying Them Together
• Mastering Medicare Compliance: Expert Strategies for Coverage Support

The Expert Track Bundle provides the opportunity to earn up to 5.0 ANCC continuing education hours (CEs) for viewing all five sessions. Learners must view at least 80% of all videos and complete the associated evaluation to receive the contact hours. No partial credit will be awarded. Contact hours will be awarded for this activity until September 9, 2028.

Experience the education from the AAPACN 2025 Quality Virtual Conference: Day 2 – Intermediate Track in a recorded bundle packaged for on-demand learning. The Intermediate Track bundle includes four education sessions and one panel discussion featuring MDS and quality subject-matter experts from that individual day. All session recordings are a compilation of voice over PowerPoint and audio recordings from the live virtual event, plus any Q&A that followed - all accessible in your AAPACN Learner Dashboard for up to one year.

 In addition to the panel discussion, the four education sessions included are as follows:

• Why Section GG has Become the Most Important Section on the MDS
• Outpacing Skin Integrity Risk: Strategic Approaches to MDS Accuracy and Wound Care Compliance
• From Assessment to Action: Avoiding Costly MDS and Care Planning Deficiencies
• SNF Audit Ready: Navigating Reviews, ADRs, and Appeals

The Intermediate Track Bundle provides the opportunity to earn up to 5.0 ANCC continuing education hours (CEs) for viewing all five sessions. Learners must view at least 80% of all videos and complete the associated evaluation to receive the contact hours. No partial credit will be awarded. Contact hours will be awarded for this activity until September 9, 2028.

Experience the education from the AAPACN 2025 Quality Virtual Conference: Day 1 – Novice Track in a recorded bundle packaged for on-demand learning. The Novice Track bundle includes four education sessions and one panel discussion featuring MDS and quality subject-matter experts from that individual day. All session recordings are a compilation of voice over PowerPoint and audio recordings from the live virtual event, plus any Q&A that followed - all accessible in your AAPACN Learner Dashboard for up to one year.

In addition to the panel discussion, the four education sessions included are as follows:

• Off to the Races: Winning the Scripted Interview with the IDT
• Out of the Gate: Managing Weight Loss Before It Derails Your Quality Measures
• Staying on Track: Managing Section N, Medications
• iQIES: What Every User Needs to Know

The Novice Track Bundle provides the opportunity to earn up to 5.0 ANCC continuing education hours (CEs) for viewing all five sessions. Learners must view at least 80% of all videos and complete the associated evaluation to receive the contact hours. No partial credit will be awarded. Contact hours will be awarded for this activity until September 9, 2028.

In the case of extenuating circumstances, you do have the option to submit a formal, written appeal to the AAPACN Member Experience Team to request an exception to the certification policies. 

To submit your appeal application:

1. Click the "register" button at the top of this page to create a new application.
2. Download the Appeal Application document from the "Application" tab.
3. Fill out the form and save a copy on your computer.
4. Return to the Appeals Application in your Learner Dashboard and submit the document for review.
   1. Open the application product.
   2. Click the “Submit Appeal Document.”
   3. Confirm the “Upload A File” option is selected, then click in the grey Upload box to browse your computer for your file.
   4. Once the completed form is uploaded successfully, click the “Submit” button.

You have 15 days to submit your application. AAPACN staff will review and respond to you within two business days.