Continuing Education Becoming A Sick Joke?

[Truth66]

Most of us have heard of the old saying about life long learning, or continuing education. In some jurisdictions, it's actually compulsary that nurses engage in continuing education to maintain their level of compentency. Yet, is all of this continuing education actually respected and utilized in the workplace?

Several years ago I was the primary trainer in our workplace for training my fellow co-workers in three different facilities on how to safely prevent and manage incidents of aggression. Because I became the primary trainer, I decided to go back to school and take a series of full length courses to get my full certificate in Forensic Studies. Once I graduated after 18 months, my Administrator looked at my certificate and handed it back to me saying, "This will help you somewhere, someday". I was never asked to do any training ever again.

Over the past few years many of my co-workers have gone back to school to upgrade their Physical Assessment skills as well as other important courses such as wound care. Yet, very few of them have been allowed to implement their skills.

I'm currently upgrading my Physical Assessment skills and I posed the question to my instructor. I asked her, based on previous people who have taken the course over the years, if she was aware of any who were not allowed to implement their skills? Surprisingly, she indicated that there were a few, based on their place of employment, they were not allowed to implement their skills because Practical Nurses were not valued, or respected, regardless of their educational qualifications. In addition, when I put in a request for various vacation days, to allow for study time for my various upcoming tests, this was turned down by the Nurse Manager. Interestingly a couple of months ago, the same Nurse Manager sent out a notice to the nurses regarding the importance of taking this upcoming Physical Assessment course. I showed this notice to my instructor and she was amazed that I still couldn't get the requested days off to allow for study time, based on the notice that was sent out

Speaking with a few Registered Nurses on this same topic, they too have experienced situations where they have upgraded their skills in various areas, yet were never allowed to implement those newly aquired skills. One R.N. summed it up by saying, "Nurse Managers these days, don't want educated nurses, they want puppets."

Interestingly, one of the core skills that we nurses learn in nursing school is Critical Thinking. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I don't see how a Nurse can use their newly aquired skills in conjunction with Critical Thinking when they are required to be nothing more than puppets for their Nurse Managers. If true, why would a nurse spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on upgrading and taking time away from their family when in the end, it may actually become a complete waste of time and limited money?

[caliotter3]

This reminds me of something that happened at my first nurse job. A coworker had been sent to a company-paid wound care course and became the "treatment" nurse. When he returned, one time he talked to me about how what he had learned pertained to a situation with one of the residents. So, in that one instance, he was able to teach me something. That was probably the only good that came of his course attendance, because the facility put him back on the floor as a charge nurse.

[cb_rn]

This is not disregarding your post. While I have never had your experience, I am sure there are some places of employment that do not value the employee that takes the initiative to seek further education/certification what have you.

That sucks about your forensic teaching but evidently they thought you were competent enough to do it prior to your getting the additional education. That will probably benefit you later and I'm sorry your supervisor was so blaise about it.

However, I need some more information about the rest of your particular post.

What advanced physical assessment skills were not able to be used after completing the class?

There are some facilities where nurses or LVNs or whoever is just not allowed to do certain things, whether we were trained to have gotten extra education or certification. For example, I worked have worked at a hospital where I was not allowed to pull chest tubes, PICCs, or certain drains. None of the floor nurses were. The doctor, the PA, the NP came to do these procedures. I can pull a PICC with my eyes closed and I have discontinued numerous drains, sutures, staples, chest tubes, many, many times. But its just not allowed at that particular hospital.

Another example, I do wound vacs all the time in home health. The large teaching hospital where I first saw a wound vac does not allow the nurses to do anything with them. Not even change the cannister out of the machine. It may seem silly or be an enormous waste of time to have a team of doctors come change a simple vac dressing when I have done thousands of them but thats just how it goes.

Another hospital I did prn work for made us go to a wound vac class and spend half a day dressing wounded sweet potatoes but then when I got to the floor, I found they had a wound care nurse over the hospital responsible for all the changes and we even called her at home if something went wrong with a dressing after hours. Go figure. I got paid 6 hours for playing around with something I can't even do in that hospital.

It could just be a hospital issue that your manager really can't do anything about. If there are no organizational protocols that allow you to be checked off as competent or if checking you off is a great inconvenience to the organization, they are going to continue to have the procedure or assessment performed the way it always has been.

Try not to get discouraged. I haven't seen the mindless puppet scenario at all though I will say that there are some managers that don't want a bunch of nurses offering suggestions on improvements to patient care or improving the work environment or things that actually affect us on a daily basis. I stayed away from the hospital and unit councils for a while because thats what I thought every place was like when I first started out in nursing. There are places and managers that do care about their employees.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

What about going back for your RN? I knew when I was an LPN that the job situation was limiting due to being an LPN. Sad but true. And...I think even truer today with the horrible economy and new healthcare reform.

[P-medic2RN]

"Nurse Managers these days, don't want educated nurses, they want puppets."

This isn't found in just nursing. Managers don't want their personnel thinking outside their little box and questing them.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I disagree with your assumptions. I choose CNE based on my own needs for professional growth and practice advancement. Choosing an activity with no clear purpose of it's use seems pointless to me. As for the physical assessment example, based solely on your post, I have to say that LVN's in my state are not responsible for the assessment in an acute care setting. Again, wrong choice for use in practice.

[Truth66]

However, I need some more information about the rest of your particular post.

What advanced physical assessment skills were not able to be used after completing the class?

What I mean by Advanced Physical Assessment skills is that when I and many others went through the nursing program, the Physical Assessment course, Pharmacology course, etc. were fairly basic courses. They weren't the same length or in depth courses like the ones being offered through continuing education at the local College. So by taking these added courses that are offered, nurses are learning alot more skills than what they initially learned when they were in the nursing program.

In addition there have been many changes to Nursing courses over the years, so graduates of the early Practical Nursing courses for example, didn't go into great depth of Physical Assessment like these new courses do.

However, like I mentioned in my OP many have not been allowed to implement these added skills. Many Registered Nurses have also encountered the same thing by taking specialized courses, but never allowed to implement their skills. Thus the reason for my OP. Why should nurses spend the time and limited money to take these courses when they are never allowed to utilize their new skills to improve the care of their Patients/Clients/Residents and/or improve the workplace?