incentives for ceu's

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Ok here is the question: what type of incentive programs does your facility have to encourage nurses to go to classes and obtain ceu's.. My delima staff education in intensive care. everyone of course gets the required ceu's but that seems to be as far as they go, except for that small handfull of selfmotivators no seems to be interested in learning. In our institution we provide icu nurses with a 5% pay increase to work in the unit. with this the requirements are minimal you must obtain acl's which we provide and then the normal hospital regs.

I want to develope a program that gets people motivated about learning. Is there a point system or ladder program or something of the sort that would help and if so how does it work?

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Paula J. Trotter

ckipp

10 Posts

How about you get to keep your job if you maintain your education? I hope that does not sound callous. For 26 years I have paid almost 100% of my own continuing education so I would be a better nurse. I have not always worked under a mandatory CE law. Only 3 times in 26 years has my employer paid anything. I have been to 12 national conferences. Two were partially paid for. And I had to do 3 days of recruiting in the booth to get it. No one ever had to motivate me to learn my job better. We need to remember that any money our facilities have come out of our patient's or the government's pocket. Should your patient have to pay you to be sure he is getting good care. I thought that is what our wages are for.

We do have a clinical ladder (levels 2 & 3) at my hospital. You get an extra 8% for each level. However, CE is only a component of what is required. You also have to precept, do education and quality projects, community volunteer work, etc.

We pay 12 hours of ed per year for everyone, usually in house programs.

MollyJ

648 Posts

I agree with CKipp; maintaining your knowledge base is part of professional responsibility. Every nurse should be doing an ongoing "needs assessment" of their own learning needs and seeking continuing ed opportunities to nurture those needs. However, from your perspective, you might start a needs assessment process if your continuing ed department doesn't do one, so that nurses are being offered topics at times that are compatible. I also agree with CKipp, I haven't gotten alot of financial support with cont ed from employers because I have always regarded continuing ed as part of what I need to do for myself. Do you work in a state that mandates CEU for relicensure??

thenurse92

3 Posts

I work in arkansas and they do not require ceu's to keep your license, however part of the agreement for the 5% pay increase to work in the unit is that they have to get 15 hours of education a year. But they can be staff meetings committee meetings etc. not just ceu's. I agree with both of you about being responsible for your own knowledge base and wanting to improve it. I too have always paid for most of my education. Occassionally geting some help not often and that is when I lived in a state that required ceu's to maintain your license.

Thanks for your reply's any other thoughts out there....

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