The beauty of an education in a health care-related field is that it is never complete. You will constantly be learning something new. The reasons for this are many, but most particularly, you will need to continue your education to keep up-to-date with new research findings and changes in practice, and to ensure that you retain your edge in your health care practice. Continuing education courses in health care give you a balanced approach to your daily practice.
Continuing Education Courses in Health Care
Continuing education is most often done through modules that give you in-person lectures as well as hands-on training. These classes may be as short as an hour or two or may be as long as two or three days. Your health care facility most likely has several modules from which you can choose, most of which are probably free if you are an employee and meet the prerequisites. However, there are several other ways you can get continuing education, or CE, credits. If you actually go back to school to further your degree or to brush up on certain skills, this may count as CEs in your state. You can also do some modules online, reading articles, watching videos and taking brief tests to show that you have a handle on the knowledge.
One of the most exciting and easiest ways for you to accrue CEs, especially in a year when you have been particularly busy, is to take a recertification class. If you are BLS, ACLS or TNCC certified, or if you hold another advanced or health care-related certification, you will most likely need to retest every two or so years to ensure you still retain the necessary knowledge and skills to continue operating on such a high level. Plus, during your recertification class, you’ll find out about any changes that have occurred in the policies and procedures for advanced or life-saving health skills.
Health care recertification classes may take care of up to half your CE credits for your next licensing period, depending on what state you are in and what your license is. Therefore, you can take care of two birds with one stone.
Take Advantage of Your Recertification Courses
Instead of looking at your continued education via recertification classes as being a necessary evil, choose to see it as a way to create and nurture a lifelong love of learning. Medical knowledge is exploding at a huge rate these days. In fact, it is estimated that medical knowledge doubles every 3.5 years, and as the years progress, it is expected to progress even faster than this. Whether you need to learn how to use a new piece of technology in your facility or simply want to learn how to better respond to emergency situations in your department, CE modules are often the way to do this.
Take advantage of your recertification classes to ask questions especially about new policies, procedures and recommendations from the American Heart Association or from other certifying bodies. Use your time to progress in your field, connect with coworkers and learn more about how to care for your patients. These modules can grow your knowledge as well as your confidence levels by putting you in safe, simulated situations where you can get a taste for what could happen in your actual practice.
Recertification classes through Project Heartbeat can help you gain the CE credits you need. Project Heartbeat offers renewal classes for BLS, ACLS, PALS and TNCC, as well as an EMT Refresher Course to keep your skills where they need to be to save lives and competently care for your patients. Many of our courses are on both our Oakland and Sacramento campuses for your convenience. See our continuing education course listings or contact us today to get started.
