Continuing Education – Your New Years Resolution – by Rosemary Homer, RN, MBA
I have always loved being a nurse. The privilege I have felt to be witness to both lives entering this world and ensuring lives leave this world with dignity is something no nurse should take for granted. We are entrusted with caring for people at their most vulnerable points and with that comes great responsibility.
Today’s acutely and critically ill patients require sharply tuned alertness and extraordinarily complex care from a team of highly skilled health professionals. Nurses confirm that patients admitted to their units are sicker than ever before
In order to provide the best patient care nurses must invest in educational opportunities that give them up to date knowledge and skills. Although education takes time, learning new information is beneficial to nurses, their employers and patients.
If nurses choose to become certified, this validates specialty knowledge, experience and clinical judgment. Certification validates the nurse’s expert knowledge and skills and therefore positions them for appropriate recognition and a critical sense of confidence and achievement.
Whether certified or not, continuing nursing education gives nurses an opportunity to brush up on knowledge they may not have used recently or to gain a more technical background in their specialty.
Continuing nursing education serves as a viable means of improving the professional competence of the practitioner with the outcome of improved health care. Ongoing education and experience reduces a nurse’s exposure to risk and better prepares him/her to make informed decisions that encompass a larger scope.
Continuing nursing education can assist individual practitioners in the continual acquisition of knowledge, the extension of professional responsibilities, the expansion of interpersonal skills, and the improvement of problem solving approaches to professional practice.
Continuing one’s education is part of lifelong learning. Participating in lifelong learning is every nurse’s responsibility.
Rosemary Homer RN, MBA directs the Northern Illinois Healthcare Education Network which offers a variety of learning opportunities for nurses. Find out more at www.halliganlynch.com.
Halligan- Lynch Consulting- Northern Illinois Healthcare Education Network is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Illinois Nurses Association, an accredited approver by theAmericanNursesCredentialingCenter’s Commission on Accreditation.”
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