Is anyone else bothered by this? You should be

Nurses General Nursing

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CE states and their requirements to keep your Nursing license...

Now is this going to mean that the Nurses in Virginia (requires many CE hours) are going to be better than let's say Arizona Nurses (not required CE hours)?

Well how about in five or 10 years? Will a Virginia hospital let's say in 10 years even consider a nurse that just relocated from Arizona to hire because they NEVER did Continuing Education hours? The Nurses in 0 to low required hours states, I wouldn't be celebrating.

To me this is just another problem in the Nursing industry. ANA can't even come up with a single standard that every state could follow and show unity.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

That's because the ANA does not control standards by which individual states renew nurses' licenses. I personally don't have an issue with it (I'm in a no CEU required state) as my employer DOES require continuing education- as do most.

Additionally, I require myself to continually read, listen and attend continuing ed.

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I don't see how a hospital in one state can refuse to hire a newly relocated nurse because the nurse followed the guidelines for her previous state. Once she's licensed in her new state she'll have to keep up with the new state's mandate.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I am in a state the requires 15 hours of continuing ED. In my neighboring state they require 30. In order to get that license that state requires that you have 30 hours of continuing ED to apply for endorsement.

They hold the cards it's their game.

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What's concerning to me is my state that doesn't require ANY CE's to renew. It is truly frightening.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Interesting thread. My state has required CE for quite a few years, but recently 'upped the bar' by requiring the CE to be relevant to the nurse's area of practice. Logically, this make sense if the purpose is to improve/maintain competency - but it's made it more expensive for our clinicians who are in 'smaller' niche specialties like case management, informatics, staff development, etc. We do have an alternative - if you are currently certified in your specialty it will meet your CE requirements for re-licensure.

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I don't think it's a big deal. Each State has their own requirements. I have one State that requires some, the other doesn't require any. I do think States should require something, but I have always done research and education so I stay current with medicine regardless of requirements.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Maintaining my CEN cert requires 100 CE's to renew. That's an average of 25 CE's/year for the 4 year cert. Easily covers the 30 needed for my 2 year state renewal plus my facility requirements have us doing 15-20 CE's a year.

Finally, I don't get nurses who don't do CE's. You've learned everything? And remember everything you've ever learned? Really?

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I've often thought it odd that I have no requirements for CE beyond a q4y Infection Control course. For what it's worth, PHYSICIANS also have varying standards, including (in my State) no CE's other than that one Infection Control course q4.

That said, I don't know a single nurse OR physician who does not take coursework, online and in conferences, seminars from time to time. I take somewhere around 15 CE's per year, sometimes more, based on my own interest in learning and keeping up-to-date with standards.

Let's face it: those who have a desire to learn will take non-required CE's. Those who do not will cram them all in before their license renewal to satisfy the requrement and nothing more. Can't see how I'd celebrate the nurse who did the minimum because she had to by living in a State that required it, over someone who is NOT required to do even one CEU---but takes them anyway.

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What's concerning to me is my state that doesn't require ANY CE's to renew. It is truly frightening.

Eh, I wouldn't be too scared :)

I think you'd find that most nurses do rack up CE, CEUs. While State renewal of licenses doesn't require it, maintaining speciality certifications do, so....you'll find a lot of nurses taking those courses for one reason or another.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER, Pediatrics, Corrections.

In Iowa, we must do 24 for our initial license (the one I just got after passing boards) and after that to renew it's 35. However, I wouldn't assume that a nurse was not as good as another just because of their number of CEUs. But, in nursing we are always learning. I am sure the no CEU states are learning on the job as things change, or maybe just from their own passion for healthcare are doing their own research.

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Required CEUs for licensure are meaningless in the first place. Nurses who are serious about maintaining competency and continuing to grow professionally do more continuing education each year than their states require, regardless of whether they're required to or not. Nurses that don't care find the easiest, cheapest way to meet the minimum requirement and requiring them to do that doesn't magically make them be interested in keeping up with new developments or growing professionally. They remain "bare minimum" nurses. As the old cliche' notes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

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