Ideas for Nursing Continuing Education Activities
As a nurse you will need to obtain continuing education credits. This requirement is placed upon you to ensure that you stay up-to-date in the continually changing medical environment. Fortunately, there are several continuing education activities that you can be involved in.
- Continuing education courses for nurses are offered both online and in-person by hospitals, academic institutions and medical organizations. Each course will vary in the number of credits you receive but are usually listed according to specialty or issue that is being dealt with. The number of credits will depend upon how difficult the work is that you are to complete. Most of these courses do require registration fees or you will need to purchase course materials. However, a lot of employers are willing to reimburse their employees for such expenses.
- Any nurse who is working towards a graduate degree can submit these courses as part of their continuing education credits. Just how many credits you will receive from this will depend upon how many semester or quarter units you complete. Each state has its own formula for making this determination. Also, keep in mind that any courses that are taken as a pre-requisite for a graduate program will not count for continuing education credits.
- There are many professional organization conferences that you can attend; these conferences will also count for credit as long as you obtain a certificate of completion, which can usually be obtained for a nominal fee.
- Some states will allow you to get credit for maintaining a subscription to a professional nursing journal. The maximum number of credits you can receive will vary so you will need to check with your state about this.