I currently live in Alabama. And for registered nurses across our state, this is the year to renew our licenses. Fees and continuing education credits are due by the end of the year in order to be renewed for the next two years. If you also live in Alabama, consider this a friendly reminder! If you don’t, your state has other requirements and due dates, but you will still have to renew your license at some point. And unless you’re a recent graduate, attending school, or not in practice, you’re going to need continuing education credits (CE’s) for renewal.
Inevitably I find myself scrambling at the last minute to get the last few credits I need to renew my license. And the most important things I want to know are:
- Where can I find CE’s?
- Are they free?
Everything in life isn’t free, but when it comes to getting CE’s, a lot of things are! You just need to know where to look. So if you’re like me, and scrambling to get your continuing education credits before your deadline, here are three companies that you should definitely check out.
Pfiedler Education
Pfiedler has been providing continuing nursing and medical education since 1990. And, they are the exclusive provider of continuing nursing education for the AORN annual congress (2008-present). Which means you’ll find a lot of OR-specific education, along with general nursing education, that is available to you for FREE. They offer their education in a variety of formats: webinars, videos, e-learning, e-books. And they tell you how many credits each course is worth. You’ll have to sign up for an account to access the education, but the account is also free.
OR Today
OR Today is an educational magazine providing perioperative and SPD professionals all of the current information for our profession. The magazine “aims to educate readers about new guidelines, techniques, and equipment, as well as offer practical information for career building, problem-solving and overall well-being.” (quoted from OR Today)
Their website offers many resources, for both inside the OR and out. And, they also offer FREE webinars that will give you CE’s. The webinars cover a variety of topics, and each one gives you 1 free CE. You can access prior webinars and also see what they have scheduled for future dates.
Beyond Clean
Simply put, the operating room can’t function without sterile instruments. Our relationship with sterile processing is necessary to keep our department going, and by increasing our knowledge of sterile processing practices we ultimately help to decrease infection rates and improve patient outcomes.
The people at Beyond Clean say that they “are sterile processing subject matter experts, seasoned department leaders and clinical innovators with a passion to #fightdirty.” They share their passion freely with an entire CE Credit Hub, full of FREE webinars and virtual conferences for you to access.
The webinars are easy to access, you take a quiz at the end, and you get 1 or 1.5 CE’s depending on the webinar. The virtual conferences will give you 7 CE’s. And all of this is FREE.
Did I mention that these courses are free?
Everything offered by the companies listed above is free for you to access. Take advantage of them!
There’s a whole world of continuing education available for nurses.
You can earn education credits through different offerings from your employer. You can also check out your state’s board of nursing. You will likely find that they have made credits available for you to earn. But, if you want to get your credits as quickly as possible, you can pay for a course that will give you a large amount of CE’s all at one time. Western Schools is a good option for this. I have done several of their courses and they were all very informative.
Have you considered joining AORN? Membership starts at $170 annually, but as a member you have access to 200+ hours of free continuing education. Membership provides you with more than just CE’s, but they are a nice perk of membership!
If you are taking a CNOR review course this year, you can earn CE’s for your course. AORN, CCI, and Zander Perioperative Education all offer CNOR review courses. My personal favorite is Zander. I took the live class 3 years ago. (You can read about my experience here) It was very thorough, and I passed my test!
Don’t wait until the last minute!
Continuing education is a requirement that is going to stay with us throughout our career. And whatever route you choose to earn them, whether free, paid, or a combination of both, don’t wait until the last minute. Take advantage of the education that is available to you and make the most of it!
Until next time,
Melanie
