Continuing Education

I am concerned with the amount of apathy some of the nurses I work with have in regards to continuing education.

Since I have graduated, I have completed 2 ECG courses, ACLS and ENPC. I consider that not much, but necessary for continuing work in the Emergency Department. I have also considered completing a certificate through a college to work on my ENC(C) status which I will qualify to take in about 2 years. In addition, when I am home I am constantly trying to learn more material about triage, and about things that I wasn't sure of when I was at work the previous day.

If I wanted to know why the doctor took the treatment in the way they did, or if I didn't know the clinical condition that well (or why they were testing certain things) I would look it up.

I worked with a newer nurse last night (has worked 1 year more than me) and although she was quite knowledgeable, I was surprised to hear that she had not done any ECG training. I can't say if she has taken any formalized ACLS/ENPC/TNCC course because I didn't ask, but the ECG thing surprised me. This nurse was going to be having a student in January, and is often trusted to work in the resuscitation room. She stated she didn't feel it was a priority for her, and her student had emailed her about things to study, she replied with "nothing".

I have done my own self study as well as taken 2 courses on it to make sure I was up to snuff on my ECGs well enough that most rhythms I can recognize and treat. Although there are some recognizable rhythms that you cannot mistake, there are so many nuances to reading ECGs that there is a medical specialty, electrophysiatry, to do a final read on them (these doctors do 3 years of internal, 2 years of cardiology and another 2 years of electrophysiatry to read ECGs and insert pacemakers etc).

As a new grad of course I feel I don't know enough about Emerg. I'm constantly thinking there is more that I don't know, so I take courses and do a lot of reading to learn. I do recognize that I will always be learning, but still, I want to be a knowledgable ED nurse that thinks ahead and takes in the global picture, not just a person who reacts afterwards. I've had a year's worth of Emerg experience, and still feel that I need more.

I'm not naive that I think that all people are like me, but come on, as a newer nurse there are tons of things you don't know. Doesn't it make sense to focus on continuing education to improve your knowledge? Not everything is completely learned at the bedside, and definately not everything is taught in nursing school.

Continuing education 1 month post-nursing school

Wow I have been averaging about a week in between blogs. Understandable, however, because I have been up to my eyeballs in packing away 5 years of junk so that I can start moving into a new apartment tomorrow.

Anyway, you are more interested in job/nursing related topics, so here's one, despite me not doing anything in a nursing capacity since early April.

I signed up for my first continuing education course today. That's right. CONTINUING education. You'd think that they'd give you a bit of a break before starting to do more classwork related to the profession.

HOWEVER, it's an ECG reading course, and it's online, so it can't be that bad. I'll need it if I want to complete ACLS. I'm sure it'll also help me with the Trauma Nursing Core Course that I'll need to take in order to be a competitive candidate for Emerg after the next few months.

You see, I have a job in the Emergency Department, but it is only a 7.5month temporary full time position. They will mentor me for a while, and it is expected that when job postings become available that I should apply for a full time job at that point. However, there are 7 of us doing the same type of job, and who knows how many jobs there will be. If I want to get one of those spots, I'm going to have to work my butt off, and show them I'm an asset.

So, $150 and an online course, here I come!

By the way if you're ever into light medical reading, Dubin's Rapid Interpretation of EKG's is a fabulous book. Its easy to read, thorough, and it teaches you how to read ECGs. If it wasn't for actually having to have the actual certification, I wouldn't even take the ECG course.. I would just read and memorize this book. I have not been paid for this review.