Continuing Education for Nurses
When actively engaged in nursing of whatever division, licenses must be renewed annually. A requisite for being issued a new license is the completion of studies with the required hours of refresher education. These continuing education advantages (CE) are easily obtained for those working in hospitals and clinics with a large amount of nurses. Regular scheduled updates on new procedures and new medications usually are ongoing. These, however, are not mandatory but the nurse who wants to have their required number of refresher hours up to date will do well to take note and learn whenever an opportunity arises.Nursing is such a varied profession with equally varying degrees of experience and knowledge based fields, no two educational needs are the same. Beyond the basic nursing skills, all nurses, throughout their careers, are expected to continue their education in whatever branch of nursing career they have chosen. Therefore, continuing education will be different for each, although overlapping in many areas.Self-study courses, online or through regular mail, is an excellent way to add those extra credits to your license requirements. You can choose from a long list of offered courses for a small fee. Case scenarios' will be presented and you are to read carefully and then take the test after you feel you understood the questions. These are not only interesting and provocative but teach you how to apply what you have learned to your applied field.Nursing Spectrum, the online site where I sought information has over five hundred CE courses.Each state has their own requirements and before an out of state nurse can work in another state, they must request licensure for that state. They likewise have their own particular requirements and will inform you what you will need to do and to learn before they will issue you a license. If, as an example, you are registered as a nurse in another state and have not worked in nursing for several years, you will be required to take remedial courses before you will be licensed.Generally, this is the rule. The potential employer may intervene, depending on how badly they need your services, and will allow you to complete the requirement while working under their supervision. As I said, in nursing, in each situation is different but what remains unchanged are the need for continuing education updates.It is best sayANCC(American Nurse Credentialing Center) to make sure that whatever course you take in your nursing education, or in whatever other related or unrelated field, that it be an accredited one. On this site, you can check with them first to make sure this is so.Actually, working in nursing is not as involved as educators sometime make it sound. Nurses are such in demand that communities programs in outreach situations such as seminars on the various related nursing fields, psychiatry, geriatrics, pediatrics, industrial, or whatever, offer credit hours for simply attending their functions. This is the main reasons many of these seminars and discussion groups are so popular for nurses. They never forget to request proof of their CE hours. They are looking toward their next state licensing requirement.Volunteering time here an there also may be used to gain extra hours of credit. Nurses learn with experience how not only to gain knowledge helpful in their chosen career, but how to get credit for all extra-curricular activities related to nursing. Nursing is an ongoing and a lifelong learning process. While some of us are registered as nurses in the state in which we write about nursing, we are not licensed. Yet as writers, we cannot but learn about the various processes of nursing, including writing about it, as we live our lives. I am one such nurse.
