Is anyone else bothered by this? You should be

[ronchelednik]

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.

[mluvsgnc]

I am surprised that WA has the highest required CEUs- I wonder why so much more than other states? Maybe it has to do with the legalizing of marijuana, ha ha

[OCNRN63, RN]

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.

​I don't think the cost matters. I've taken free CE, CEU that were quite challenging, and paid for some that turned out to be a joke.

[llg, PhD, RN]

My attitudes have changed over the years on this issue. I used to be against mandatory CE's and now I support them.

While I agree with elkpark in that good nurses will continue to learn throughout their careers whether CE credit is required or not -- and bad nurses will continue to bad nurses even if the CE's are required -- there is more to it than that.

The culture of nursing needs to change a bit -- and that includes a respect for educational credentials in geneneral. Our tradition of saying that "good people will learn on their own" and that "society will figure out who the good ones are without relying on a piece of paper" has taken us down a lot of troublesome paths over the years. Where does the attitude that credentials don't matter lead us? If "the pieces of paper" don't matter, then why bother to even have licenses? Hey -- the good ones will be obvious and get jobs and the bad ones will mess up and get fired, right? Wrong.

It is time for the nursing profession to grow up and hold itself accountable for the quality of those who call themselves nurses. That includes having clearly established standards that need to be and official credentials to document that those standards have been met. The poor quality educational programs (be they nursing schools or CE programs) need to be shut down so that people who hold the proper credentials can be safely counted on to have met the established standards.

The public has a right to know that the people calling themselves nurses have kept up-to-date with current nursing knowledge and practice. If there are problems with the CE system (which I think there are) eliminating CE's is not the answer. Holding the providers of CE and the holders of CE accountable for keeping those credentials meaningful is.

As a Virginian, I was happy to see my state adopt a CE requirement recently -- and only wish they hadn't left so many loopholes in the regulations.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

My state requires CEUs. I can get most of it covered by doing "required" education at work. When I look at some of some of the ways to get CEUs, I realize it is kinda pointless. Take a 10 question multiple choice "quiz" about an article? I can basically skim through the article to get the answers and learn nothing other than the few random pieces of trivia that were brought up in the quiz questions. My hospital does offer real learning opportunities and I can choose ones that are relevant to my practice--I prefer to take advantage of these rather than random articles. However, a nurse could get basically all of his/her CEUs complete and never really learn anything.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Interesting how they forgot to list The District of Columbia on the list, It has a requirement of 24 CEUs for license renewal. License renewal is every two years.

I don't mind the CEUs, especially because I can always learn something new,

[klone, MSN, RN]

I have never worked in a state that required CEUs. That has never stopped me from continuing to learn, even though I've never formally earned CEUs.

[toomuchbaloney]

meh

I am not real concerned with the CEU requirements of other states as I think it is relatively meaningless in terms of how knowledgeable a nurse is. Some states have a CEU requirement but no requirement that you have actually worked any hours in the capacity of a nurse. My state requires both CEUs AND hours of nursing function to renew the professional license.

[Susie2310]

My state requires contact hours for license renewal, and specialty re-certification requires 100 contact hours every four years, so that amply fulfills my state requirement. My practice has improved as a result of taking the extra CEU's.

[Mulan]

I've never seen a job application that asked how many CEU's you did to get a license in another state prior to relocating.

[ronchelednik]

Wonderful comments everyone. I done some more research and it is very worrisome with the different standards.

California is already denying some Nurses by not issuing licenses to RN to work in their state. The following is an excerpt from.

https://allnurses.com/nurse-registration/nursing-license-denied-684896.html

QUOTE:

I am a Registered nurse in 1 canadian province and in Nevada and Alaska. My husband, who is in the US military, has beed transferred to California. I have been trying to get my RN license in California for 4 months and I keep getting denied with "you don't have enough hours in obstetrics and pediatrics to qualify for a license."

Now if California is denying licensed and experienced Registered Nurses a license to work in their glorious state. What do you think they are going to do in a few years to Nurses that don't have the CE hours that they have their nurses attain each year? And how long will it be before the other states require the same thing? I think everyone should go for the 30 hours and keep good records of you intend to relocate or become a travel nurse.

[toomuchbaloney]

Wonderful comments everyone. I done some more research and it is very worrisome with the different standards.

California is already denying some Nurses by not issuing licenses to RN to work in their state. The following is an excerpt from.

https://allnurses.com/nurse-registration/nursing-license-denied-684896.html

QUOTE:

I am a Registered nurse in 1 canadian province and in Nevada and Alaska. My husband, who is in the US military, has beed transferred to California. I have been trying to get my RN license in California for 4 months and I keep getting denied with "you don't have enough hours in obstetrics and pediatrics to qualify for a license."

Now if California is denying licensed and experienced Registered Nurses a license to work in their glorious state. What do you think they are going to do in a few years to Nurses that don't have the CE hours that they have their nurses attain each year? And how long will it be before the other states require the same thing? I think everyone should go for the 30 hours and keep good records of you intend to relocate or become a travel nurse.

I don't find it worrisome at all.

It is not difficult to obtain quality CEUs.

If the nurse is not looking to change location it is not a problem, IMHO

[klone, MSN, RN]

California is notorious for being particularly picky about honoring licenses received in other states. I wouldn't use California as the yardstick. Is there evidence of other states refusing to recognize RN licenses?