Nursing Continuing Education Resource Center
Learn about nursing continuing education careers and education.
The Benefits of Nursing Continuing Education
If you are interested in pursuing a career in nursing, you will be entering an ever-changing field. More than 2.5 million people work as nurses in the United States, making it the country's largest health care occupation. And because of the challenge to keep on top of the latest new information and practices constantly being developed in the medical field, nursing continuing education is a vital part of any nursing career—and often a requirement.
Nursing continuing education is required in some nursing jobs, but is also beneficial to your career. For example, a graduate degree or certificate in a specific area of continuing education may help you get a raise or a promotion to a higher position. Your new knowledge will not only impress your managers, but it will also improve your resume and potentially increase your salary.
Beyond career advancement, nursing continuing education will provide you with updated knowledge and technology advances in your chosen field of study. For instance, if you are a NICU or PICU nurse, working with neonatal and pediatric intensive care patients, you know that this exciting field is always developing new techniques and treatments that you need to be aware of. Other growing fields, such as rehabilitation, substance abuse, wound care, women's health and many others are making advances that specializing NPs, LPNs, and RNs use to give their patients the best care possible.
Many nurses also use their continuing education to take refresher courses in a particular specialty, such as adult trauma intensive care, cardiac care or cardiac surgery.
Advance Your Career Through
Nursing Continuing Education Online
Many of these nursing continuing education courses are offered online. An online course may take a few hours to complete, or may take weeks or months, depending on the program. With a demanding nursing career, taking courses online is a great option, offering the convenience of completing the course on your own time, and in the privacy of your own home.
Beyond the personal and professional benefits of nursing continuing education, these courses are required in many nursing professions. Each state has different requirements as to how many contact hours of continuing education a nurse must complete. A contact hour is defined as 50 consecutive clock minutes of participation in a board-approved continuing education class or activity. And a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is defined as ten contact hours. Many of these required courses are offered online, but you should make sure that these courses are approved by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) , which is a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association (ANA).
The nursing field is booming, and more qualified nurses will be needed in the next decade than ever before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects substantial employment growth for nurses at all levels, such as a 23 percent increase for registered nurses by 2016, making this an excellent time to start a nursing career.
Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009
Nurse CEU.com., 2009
RN.com, 2008
Nursing Continuing Education Perks at a Glance
Increase Your Earning Potential!
Continuing Your Nursing Education gives you more credentials and, in-turn, can increase your nursing salary. According to RN.com, 80 percent of nurses interviewed said their salaries increased by more than 15 percent after they decided to advance their education. Most of the nurses also said that they were able to get their continued education nursing degrees through convenient evening, weekend or online classes.
An In-Demand Job
With the current nursing shortage, there are many opportunities for people going into the nursing industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of registered nurses is expected to grow quickly throughout the coming decade as more retirees are in need of skilled health care professionals. Continuing your nursing education can give you more opportunities in this already booming industry!
How to Pay for Nursing School
- As nursing school tuition has increased, a rising number of nursing scholarships and grants have become available for qualifying candidates. Nursing school is expensive, but there are many grants, loans, scholarships, work-study and loan forgiveness programs available to hard-working students. Gain access to nursing school financial first aid.