NO continuing ed requirement??

Mandatory CEs are a joke.

My father was a physician and I recall back when I was in high school, our state first instituted mandatory continued ed for physicians. My dad was kvetching about this at home and I innocently asked, what's wrong with requiring continuined education? Isn't that a good thing for priofessionals? He explained to me that the problem with mandatory continuing ed is that it's basically meaningless. The people who are interested in staying current and growing professionally are already doing more continuing ed than the required amount; and the people who aren't interested are going to find the "path of least resistance" to meet the letter of the law, but still aren't going to really learn anything or move forward professionally. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, as the saying goes.

Fast forward twenty-some years. I went into nursing, and was practicing in a state which instituted a new requirement about mandatory CE hours for licensure renewal. I recalled the conversation I'd had with my father, and waited to see what happened. I was already doing quite a bit more continuing education every year than the state was going to require, of my own free will because it was important to me personally, so it wasn't going to affect me in any way. What happened in my city was that, as soon as the rule was implemented, all the hospitals started offering monthly inservices for the nursing staff (the state required 24h of CE to renew every two years; so, 1 hour a month). They offered each inservice multiple times, on all shifts, so everyone could have the opportunity to go each month on work time, and they gave out CE credit for attending. I went to a few of the offerings at my hospital, when they were on topics that interested me, and my service was tapped to provide inservices on a few topics, so I was there a few times as a presenter. What I saw were nurses (some, not all -- but always some) coming to the presentations, sitting in the back of the room, eating lunch, talking with their friends or on their 'phones, reading books or magazines -- clearly having no interest and paying no attention to the presentation, but they were physically in the room, so they got the hour of CE credit. The hospitals made sure all their nurses got the CEs necessary to maintain their licenses, the nurses didn't have to put forth any effort or personal cost whatsoever (other than the effort involved in walking from their units to the conference room), and, for the nurses who didn't care about improving their knowledge or skills, there was absolutely no pressure to do so -- the whole process was a meaningless charade.

What I've seen since then, in a few different states, is businesses making money by offering RNs quick/easy/effortless CEs, where, basically, you simply buy the credits. People who are interested in their profession and professional development don't need the states to make them seek out new information and understanding; people who aren't interested have a wide array of choices to avoid doing so and get away with it.

I agree with my father -- you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can't make anyone want to develop professionally, and there are always going to be organizations and businesses around to accommodate those who don't want to.

I have worked in states that had mandatory CE's for license renewal and some that did not. I agree with Elkpark. The people who value being up-to-date will engage in learning on their own. The employers who value it will help pay for it. Those who don't value it will turn the system into a sham. The companies who provide it won't increase the standards/rigor because they want to keep their customers happy.

Personally, I like that I live in a state that recently mandatated CE's for license renewal. As I work in staff development, it means more job security and opportunities for me. But as someone with over 35 years experience as a nurse (most of it in staff development) ... I think there are a lot of people who simply buy their CE credit and don't learn much of value.