When you become a nurse, you never stop learning. In addition to the valuable lessons you will learn on the job, you may also be required to take a specified number of continuing education credits to be able to renew your license. Read on to learn more about your continuing education in nursing.
Facts About Nursing Continuing Education
Nurses must renew their licenses every two years. In some states, nurses must complete continuing education credits before they are allowed to renew their license. There are currently twenty-one states that require nurses to complete continuing education.
The number of nursing continuing education credits required will vary from state to state. Some states may require as little as ten education credits while other may require as many as forty. The type of continuing education that is taken is usually up to the nurse.
A few states will require that the nurse take education units on a specific topic. For example, Ohio requires the nurse to take twenty four hours of continuing education and one of those hours must be about Ohio nursing law.
So if you are a nurse and working in a state that requires continuing education for nursing, where do you find the education units that you need? One of the places you may look is professional nursing journals. These journals typically offer one or two credits for reading their articles and then sending in a post test by mail. There is almost always a fee attached, usually ten dollars or so. This may not be bad if you only need to pick up a credit or two but it would not be cost effective to get all of your credits this way.
Seminars are often offered in various places around your state. Depending on the subject of the seminar, you employer may be willing to pay for the registration fee. But travel expenses are usually on you. The good thing about a seminar is it will give you a significant number of continuing education credits from just one class. The bad thing is the travel and you usually have to give up one of your off days to attend.
But there is an easy and cost effective way to get the required continuing education credits that you need. You just need to go online. You may not find free online nursing continuing education, but there are hundreds of online sites who will want to be your nursing continuing education provider - and they will offer their continuing education credits at a very reasonable cost. The provider will even store the credits in their database if you should ever need to get a copy of your credits. You can print out a certificate after completion for your files.
But what about the states that don’t make it mandatory for a nurse to have continuing education credits to renew their licenses? Are the nurses in these states less informed than the nurses in states that have mandatory CEU’s? There has been a lot of debate about this issue by nursing organizations across the country. The answer is not a simple one. Some nursing organizations will say the continuing education should be mandatory for all states so that nurses can stay current to the changes that are taking place in healthcare. Other organizations say that continuing education does very little to keep nurses informed. But the general consensus is that the requirements for re-licensure should be the same across the nation. If nursing wants to move forward and be considered a contemporary profession on par with other health care professions, it needs to have more uniformity.
So if you are a nurse in a state that requires continuing education credits to get your license renewed, look online for informative lessons that can help you in your current position. If you live in a state that doesn’t require CEU’s for re-licensure, it is up to you to read up on the changes taking place in the nursing field. Just remember, a well informed nurse is a good nurse. Continuing education for registered nursing is the best way to ensure you can deliver the best possible care to your patients.
