There are some nurses who think that after they graduate from nursing school that the time for education has passed. They devalue the continuing education (CE) credits that they are required to complete (by their facility or their state). But, perhaps if they looked at CEs a little differently, there would not be such a great resent for this valuable tool in nursing practice.
You owe it to yourself and the patients you serve to continue to enhance your nursing practice through continuing education.
Continuing education provides a wide ranges of benefits to nurses and their patients alike. In the paragraphs to follow, you will gain information that may help you see greater benefit in nursing CE courses. And if you’re require to take CE courses, you might as well read this to see why-on-earth they are so important.
Keeping your Nursing License
Many states require nurses to complete a certain number of continuing education (CE) hours annually. If you fall to complete the CE hours you are at risk of loosing your nursing license. If you are unsure if you need CE credits, check to see if yours is one of the states requiring CE for nurses.
Getting a Boost in Pay
Many employers have education as a factor in their employee evaluations. They may require a certain amount of nursing education in order to get your standard score, but having extra may give you a boost in the education category. This could lead to a larger raise and help to boost to pay grade.
Keeping Your Nursing Knowledge Up to Date
Completing nursing CE credits will help you to stay current with new information. The field of healthcare is constantly changing and the facts and values you learned in nursing school might have changed. It is important to get refreshed on information you already know and learn any new information that is relevant to your nursing practice.
In order to provide the best care possible, it is vital that nurses are frequently updating their knowledge. It is very important to continue your nursing education and CEs are an excellent method of doing so. You don’t want some new nurses knowing more than you; do you?
Nursing CE Topics Are Diverse
You may think that nursing CEs might be boring and repetitive. However, you may be unaware that you have the freedom to choose the courses you take. Continuing Education credits for nurses cover a range of topics that you may find relevant to your daily practice.
The following are example of the types of CE courses available to nurses: regulatory, leadership, learning, communication, patient safety, occupational health and safety, infection control, legal.
There are also courses on clinical specialties such as cardiology, emergency, neonatal, maternal-newborn, critical care, medical-surgical, transport, neurology, pediatrics, pharmacology, tests, vascular access, and physical assessment.
The physical assessments often have in depth modules for each body system. Some examples of those might be: respiratory system, digestive system, endocrine system, excretory system, nervous system, muscular system and cardiovascular system.
Being a Reliable Source of Information
Patients and nursing colleagues will often ask your questions. It is extremely important that you be able to provide them with accurate and reliable information. If it’s been 10 years since you attended nursing school, how easy do you think it will be to remember the proper levels of potassium in the blood stream?
Regulatory requirements are updated frequently and it is important to be aware of these changes and to know how they might impact your nursing practices. Also, often times parts of nursing assessments are phased out and replaced over time. It is important that you know what assessments are relevant to your patients and have not been replaced as a standard of care.
Providing the Best Evidence Based Nursing Care
Nursing CE courses are based on evidence based practice. You will be learning skills and knowledge that have been tested and proven by other nurses. This ensures that you are able to deliver the best nursing care possible because the information you are receiving has already been tested in practice.
Your patients depend on you to have the most accurate and up to date knowledge to provide them with the best care possible. You might learn something that helps you to save a life.
Being a Leader to Other Nurses
Nursing CEs can help you improve your leaderships skills. You can learn better strategies to manage your staff as well as gain skills needed to rise up the hierarchy in healthcare.
In addition to gaining this useful information, you can also lead by example and perhaps inspire other nurses to enhance their leadership abilities through nursing CE credits. The more nurses who are maintaining CE hours the better!
Get a Great Deal on CE for Nurses
If you’re in the market to get a fantastic deal on nursing CE course, then look no further. Nurses Network (powered by Course Park) has an excellent deal going on right now for their Black Friday Special. (Yes, Black Friday, in September!) For the extremely discounted rate of $19, you get unlimited access to 143 approved courses for a full year. You can get a quick look at the Nurse’s Network Healthcare Curriculum. Be sure to check out the Nurses Network’s catalog of courseware made by nurses for nurses with over over 25 clinical, leadership, and regulatory categories. 
But act fast! This $19 nursing CE promo is a rare find. And this chance to save 55% off the standard price ($44.95) won’t last long.
The Black Friday for Nurses promotion runs from Tuesday September 4th to Saturday September 8th at 11:59 PM EST.
So head on over to the Black Friday for Nurses now!
This post contains sponsored content. Opinions stated are my own.
