The effects of electrical current stressing on the field emission characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) thin films are reported. In these a-C:H films an initial conditioning treatment of the film is often required before the onset of stable emission and only after several voltage cycles do the values of the threshold field tend to converge. By stressing of the film by applying a predetermined current through the film, the initial conditioning treatment can be removed and stable and reproducible emission observed. Retesting of the current stressed films shows that the films remain fully conditioned provided a sufficiently high stress current was initially used.