Nursing not only requires years of school prior to being able to even become a registered nurse, but continuing education is imperative. On top of already long hours worked by most nurses it can seem daunting to have to keep up with additional education. Thankfully, we live in an era of technology and information at our fingertips! While we still have to do the research, read the data and articles, at least we can do so in our PJs curled up with a warm drink in bed. I don’t know about you, but I am ALL about learning in comfort. Although, if you have time to knock some of this out during a work shift that’s pretty nice too. Plus, I know somewhere that you can get some super comfy, custom fit scrubs to make your learning experience almost as comfy as if doing so in your PJs.
Now that we got nailed down what your learning attire should be, let’s get down to some awesome resources for nurses to brush up on their continuing education.
1.)American Nurses AssociationThe American Nurses Association has a dynamic website if you’re not already familiar with it. Not only do they have a CE catalog for you to peruse courses you may want to take, and the ability to apply and renew your credentials, but you can also attend live webinars with other nurses and obtain CE credits that way! Amazing!
2.) HRSA (Health Resources & Services Administration)HRSA is a phenomenal resource as well. While they do provide webinars, I think their best asset they provide are grants for nurses wishing to seek advanced continuing education; such as for becoming certified as a nurse midwife or nurse practitioner. Why would they do this you might ask? Well, as much as we’d like to think they would be doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts, the truth remains that nursing professionals, doctors, and dentists, have been hugely lacking the past years. At some point the desire to go after these professions must have become unappealing; even if someone did like the idea of going into one of these professions, these courses of study can be arduous and costly (as you probably know).The thing is, this is a serious problem! It’s estimated that by 2022 we will be understaffed by about 90,000 doctors. So maybe you want to take HRSA up on a grant to be a nurse practitioner? Maybe?
3.) Elite Continuing EducationElite boasts to offer courses that are best in class, and that provide the latest in patient care, to keep you up-to-date on cutting edge information. They also have a guide to eliminate guessing whether a particular course will satisfy your specific state’s requirements for CE credits. Elite also gives you your certificate of completion immediately upon course completion (may be good if you’re the procrastinating type).
4.) Learning NurseLearning Nurse is a fantastic site because of the various things it has to offer. Obviously given this article title, you probably know that they offer ecourses. However, one of the features I like on this site is that they offer an assessment section to help you determine what areas you could use the most improvement, or perhaps where a subject refresh may be beneficial. This section has nursing quizzes, games, and apps which also makes for a fun, productive way to spend your “gaming” time...watch out Candy Crush!
5.) Nurse.comNurse.com provides thousands of courses! It is a membership site, but provides some nice bonuses like: free CE alerts and promotions, transcript storage, license reminders, and custom job alerts. I could definitely see how this platform could be tremendously beneficial to a nurse looking to switch jobs, or a nursing student getting ready to graduate.
6.) Nursing and Allied HealthcareThis platform doesn’t particularly provide anything on it’s own, but is a wealth of resources. It has endless resources and links listed for anatomy resources, ebooks, ejournals, links to websites, and more.Of course the best part of all these sites is their jammy worthiness as stated in the beginning of this article. We hope these resources for nursing prove useful for you (I am particularly intrigued by seeing more about these nursing games!).We are in a demanding profession that requires a lot from us physically, mentally, and even emotionally.
However, at the end of the day, most of us love what we do, and love the opportunity to increase our knowledge when it means improving our patient care. So I genuinely hope sharing these resources makes your life a bit easier, and want to remind you to take care of yourself too! In fact, if you didn’t catch our blog last month, check it out: 6 Ways for Nurses to Stick to Their New Year’s Resolution, and What We Think it Should Be! Hint: it’s all about self-care.Also click on over and shop our awesome selection of custom fit scrubs!