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.
Have you seen the levels of difficulty/interactivity in these classes? It's laughable. I've been to a couple of CE classes (as part of my studies in nursing school and then again on my own accord while a practicing RN) and all I have to say is I don't see them as really separating the wheat from the chaff in the nursing profession... so no, there should be no difference in the license transfer process between high CE states and low/0 CE states. Disclaimer: I live in a 30 CE state.
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.
The CA BRN's concern is with people's initial nursing education for licensure. Entirely different kettle of fish. I don't think they're going to get worked up in the future about continuing education credits.
Have you seen the levels of difficulty/interactivity in these classes? It's laughable. I've been to a couple of CE classes (as part of my studies in nursing school and then again on my own accord while a practicing RN) and all I have to say is I don't see them as really separating the wheat from the chaff in the nursing profession... so no, there should be no difference in the license transfer process between high CE states and low/0 CE states. Disclaimer: I live in a 30 CE state.
I wouldn't say they separate the wheat from the chaff, but CEU courses do have varying levels of difficulty. One can choose to be challenged, or not, i.e. pick an easy course or a more difficult course.
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.
I agree with you that all states should require some minimal level of CE for relicensure.
As to the doing it yourself because it's the right thing to do, I always have way, way more CEUs than required every year for licenses and certifications, and always have.
But there are always those periodic plaintive threads on AN that say something like, "Where can I get 30 hours of CE by Monday?" Uh-HUH.
Yes and not a single person is going to vet whether you challenged yourself and what grade you got in the CE class (a joke). I challenged myself with upper level science classes in college to impress the nursing school admissions staff. The only thing it did was make the admissions process harder because I had a lower GPA; while the higher GPA, "easy" science class students were accepted post haste. It's about numbers these days, not your quality as a person. Too many people on the planet and numbers are too easy to work with for those sorts of considerations to matter anymore.
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.
My guess is that she was educated in a different country and her basic education does not qualify her for a license in California.
Yes and not a single person is going to vet whether you challenged yourself and what grade you got in the CE class (a joke). It's about numbers these days, not your quality as a person. Too many people on the planet and numbers are too easy to work with for those sorts of considerations to matter anymore.
The point of taking CEU's is to maintain/improve one's own nursing knowledge/competence. It is continuing nursing education. From your earlier post I understand you are a new nurse and have not yet taken many CEU's. It also sounds as though the CEU classes you took were of poor quality. There are good quality, challenging CEU courses available; you just have to look for them. Even if no-one vets whether you challenged yourself in your CEU's or not, why is that important? You are taking the CEU's to maintain/improve your own nursing practice. My state requires a number of CEU's for license renewal, and then there is the requirement for specialty certification (100 contact hours in 4 years). Taking the extra CEU's, in addition to my license renewal requirements, choosing challenging courses (for me), has helped me to increase my knowledge and thus improve my practice. It is about my quality as a nurse.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
My guess is that she was educated in a different country and her basic education does not qualify her for a license in California.
Yes, I believe he is referring to the "concurrency issue" with foreign-trained nurses such as the Phillipines. Completely separate issue from individual state CEUs.
My feeling is that good nurses always have kept up with professional education in their chosen areas of expertise and there are lots of fluffy online courses that take about 25% of the time they say it will on the advertisement. I've heard lots of anecdotes about falsifying the renewal forms with courses never actually taken and betting the odds you won't get audited. In the end it still comes down to personal integrity.
I just retired this month. I reside in New York State. No CEU's are required to renew, other than Infection Control every three years, and the RN's have to take a Child Abuse one as well as IC. The American Nurses Association, has nothing to do with regulations about licensure in my state, it is an organization that charges a great deal of money to belong to. I have read threads on here about the money angle, but that is another story. In all of my thirty plus years of nursing, I continued to learn and study. Most nurses do that also, except for a few. Inservices were required at my agency to maintain my employment. I am wondering why you felt that the ANA, had anything to do with nursing licenses anywhere? Maybe you best look that up and learn?
Not concerned at all...but then again, I have always completed CEUs, even when it wasn't required when I was a LPN (the BON is still ironing out whether LPNs are going to need required CEUs), so it's a no brainer for me.
CEUs can be a plus on a résumé depending on the position, otherwise, I know of no disadvantage of not having them listed or not at all, so one with no "state CEUs" from a other state can still have a great advantage with their experience.
TU RN, DNP, CRNA
461 Posts
Have you seen the levels of difficulty/interactivity in these classes? It's laughable. I've been to a couple of CE classes (as part of my studies in nursing school and then again on my own accord while a practicing RN) and all I have to say is I don't see them as really separating the wheat from the chaff in the nursing profession... so no, there should be no difference in the license transfer process between high CE states and low/0 CE states. Disclaimer: I live in a 30 CE state.