RN refresher courses?

[wam79]

I have been a nurse foe 20+ years . I have been working in acute Psych for the past 12 years. I would like to work in Critical care again ,but I feel I should get some type of training to "catch up" . I have enough experience to know what I don't know :chuckle Working acute care psych so I do work with patients with medical needs. Nothing that would relate to CC.If a patient gets medically very ill they are transfered.

Has anyone heard of some type of refresher course or something similar. I have concidered going to med/surg via agency but wonder if I could get the experiences I need.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

Contact your Board of Nursing. Texas requires refresher courses under certain conditions and the Board has info on who is "approved" to provide the course. If your Board does not have this info, or will allow you to do it online, you might contact http://www.phesonline.com. Their total package is $1500, but you might only need 1-2 modules. Another option is to talk to a hospital recruiter to learn how they handle new grads. It is too expensive to provide a course for 1 student doing refresher, but our hospital often places exp. nurses in with new grads during their 6 week orientation. They may not need the whole 6 wks, of course, but at least the teaching is already going on and it helps the exp. nurse who is changing nursing unit types or needs refresher courses to get what they need. Good luck!!

[wam79]

Thanks for the sugestions. the website is more basic than what I had in mind, but I like your idea about contacting area hospitals. I know they will hire new grads into a mentored bridging program. Maybe they would be willing to hire me into the same deal. What I lack in current knowlege I make up for with experience. Besides while in the mentor program the pay is 1/2 RN rate. I would think a hospital would like an experienced nurse for 1/2 pay especially one who can float to psych :chuckle