RN CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSES YOU CAN DO WHILST WAITING FOR TRAVEL DATE

The RN Continuing education (CE) program is one important resource that you will need to remain a functional RN,and also keeps your license alive. Having passed the licensure exams, most agencies will register you for a CE program and pay for it.

The period between passing the NCLEX and travel date can vary from few months to a year. And in the face of factors like retrogression and other federal government policies, this can even take years.

In the mean time, your agency will usually sign you up for continuing education courses on special areas of nursing. Not NCLEX-RN –oriented this time, but RN job description related.

You will learn and do lots of practice-based assignments both online and in practice. Most important of the CE courses is the physical assessment for the various systems.

And physical assessment is one example of many CE subjects well treated and well illustrated by most CE providers that international RNs who are new to these skills will have no difficulty grasping them.

By now you already know the US nursing is about primary nursing, and thus you must always be in total control of your patients’ care. You start right from assessment down to implementation and evaluation.

In my mother country for instance, physicians always had an upper hand in health care decision making. Even physical assessment was the sole preserve for the physician.

But as a US RN, you got to learn and master these nursing skills and always be ready to make critical thinking decisions throughout your practice.

More unique to these assessments are auscultation of heart sounds, lung sounds, palpation, physical observation and percussion. These skills are well explained and treated explicitly by good CE providers. Some CE web sites even provide links to other sites with great audio files on lung and heart sounds.

These skills were actually new and confusing to me initially. Yes! Just because for the first time in my RN professional practice, these skills are part of my RN job description.

It therefore, requires lots of practice to master them. You first have to have a good grasp of the normal breath sounds, heart sounds, etc.

That way, it is easier to identify an abnormality. And then you can go ahead to put the abnormalities into their designated categories.

Other CE courses give you practice based information and updates you on any new clinical developments. It also enlightens you about recent results from proven clinical trials and their importance to present practice.

The RN continuing education program takes care of every specialty, be it ER, ICU and NICU nursing. And it can be online or hard copy. Some hospital educational programs or in-service training courses also earn you CE credits. And certification courses in areas like telemetry nursing, medical surgical nursing specialization etc. also yield continue education hours.

CE comes under various subjects; from procedures through legalities to safety requirements and measures. Once you complete the accompanying test under each subject, you earn a certificate and score hours.

There are also CE courses on communication and documentation. These topics give you an idea about popular methods and formats of documentation in USA hospitals and how to document incidence/events etc.

Charting and documentation are either computer based or on a flow sheet. And charting is by exception.

Most of us had our RN training and practiced charting using the narrative charting system and other methods of reporting. This time, just mention abnormalities and how you take care of them. If it is about an incident report, just document what you saw and observed. Period.

CE courses on documentation and communication gives you the armor for protection for yourself & your license. And, of course, your hospital will expect correct and accurate documentation for the purpose of billing.

Throughout your RN practice, you will do these CE courses periodically to acquire further knowledge and also update your skills. In fact, some employers and agencies make CE course a part of the benefit package.

As far as the renewal of your RN license is concerned, CE hours are good for five years.

And before you pay and sign up for an RN continuing education course make sure you are dealing with an approved CE provider.

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