Emergency Nursing Course

[americanrose]

Hey! IS your department likely to give you a place on a course just on the basis of interest and asking? I have been in the A+E for 18 months now and have asked every four months. I was so disheartened to hear last year that £9,000 was unspent that could have been used for courses. My main question is how does your dept allocate places and who did you speak to to get on a course?

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Moved to the UK forum

[skylark, BSN, RN]

Personally I did not find the UK A&E course much use, its more about essay writing than clinical content.

The CEN seems to be a much better approach IMO.

[americanrose]

@skylark did you study and take the CEN certification exam? Where did you study the Uk course? The clinical workbook looked interesting that my colleagues had, they learnt suturing, and everything seemed relevant to where we practice in London.

[skylark, BSN, RN]

Just my opinion, (the A&E course seems to vary a lot and not have a national standard), but my recollection is that there was not much A&P, it was more about a reactive approach to clinical presentations, rather than anticipating and preparing for likely outcomes due to knowledge of physiology.

Suturing is a clinical skill, usually taught in-house, whereas a course (IMO) should focus on assessment skills, and the physiology behind them.

I prefer courses where I learn WHY to do something rather than just the basic skill of doing it.

I can't find a contents/syllabus for any current A&E course, but here is the CEN one -

CEN Content Outline – BCEN

I try to avoid 'reflective practice' at all costs. Debriefing I can do, but reflective always seems too subjective and self-focused for me: )