RN-BC (cardiac) questions

Hi Everyone,

I've recently been researching what I need to become board certified in my specialty of Cardiac/Vascular nursing and have a few questions. Most people I know who have become board certified in a specialty have been in that specialty for a number of years. While I've been on my hospital's Medical telemetry/soft cardiac floor for a year full-time I've been caring for tele/cardiac pt's on a per-diem float basis since the start of my career 4 years ago. Would my experience seem too minimal to be considered qualified? I LOVE tele/cardiac and I'm good at it. I don't know whether I'll want to do bedside nursing for the rest of my career, but for now expanding my practice with this certification is a high priority of mine.

To that effect, according to the ANCC's website I need a whooping 30 credit hours (300 contact hours?!) worth of cardiac-related continuing education to be considered eligible.

I was hoping to take the certification exam in about 4-6 months but I'm wondering if that's unrealistic. It seems like it would take years to accumulate that many credit hours at least.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks.