CONTINUING EDUCATION 1

Continuing Education

Continued education for nurses who are not practicing as a nurse makes perfect sense.

However, if you are a nurse who works full time, then you are continuing education every day

with every hour you work. It is untimely and expensive to expect nurses who are in full practice,

whether in clinics, hospitals, or teaching positions, to spend extra time and money for continuing

education.

When you work as a nurse your knowledge is constantly growing. You are frequently

seeking to advance your knowledge. There is not a day that goes by where something new is not

presented as a learning opportunity. It can range from an unfamiliar medication, to an unfamiliar

diagnosis being presented, to a new wound care product or technique being learned. These are

all opportunities for continuing education and should be recognized as such.

With the rising cost of continued education, it is not always feasible to expect that

everyone can afford to continue their education. According to the National Center for

Educational Statistics (2019), “for the 2016–17 academic year, annual current dollar prices for

undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board were estimated to be $17,237.” Special

consideration should be taken into account of the price rising yearly.

If a nurse can produce pay stubs from full-time working hours along with a well-kept

journal of all opportunities utilized to further education, then continued education hours should

be omitted. Continued education is ideal for nurses who have not practiced, but for practicing

nurses continuing education should be easier to attain and more economically feasible.

REFERENCES

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). Retrieved from

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76