It has often been said that nursing is one of the noblest professions in the world. After all, how many of us are keen to be nurses, being as they are surrounded by the ill, the dying and the dead. But then there are scores of people all over the world, for whom nursing is a career of choice. These are people who go to nursing colleges and pay good money and invest a great deal of time and effort to become qualified nurses.
But being a qualified nurse is only the beginning. For, equipped with this kind of a qualification, nurses can only expect entry level jobs. Only when they have served for a while do they begin to understand what options are available for them. It is at this stage that most nurses get into a dilemmatic situation. They can’t quit their jobs to learn more and equip themselves with in demand skills, but by not doing so, they are forced to remain at low paying jobs for a long time. The solution however is easily available to them. And it comes in the form of continuous nursing education.
Simply put, continuous nursing education is an “earn while you learn” scheme. When working nurses sign-up for continuous nursing education programs, they can continue to work at their regular hospitals while they improve their qualifications on the side. Most nurses with basic qualifications can sign-up for Degree program in this manner and work for their degree part-time while working as full time regular nurses. Of course, such a course might be longer than a conventional full-time course, but the working nurse need not give up her job to pursue her education. This explains the name continuous nursing education.
Most hospitals have a tie-up or affiliation with a college or university that provides continuous nursing education. Since the hospital administers the program, the nurses stand to benefit as they can schedule their work in order to accommodate the demands of the course. They also prefer hospitals which provide the option of continuous nursing education because this is a guarantee that they will have chances to grow in their chosen profession and thereby, earn more. And for the hospitals, it makes commercial sense because they have a steady pool of nurses guaranteed to undertake the course. Further, hospitals favor the continuous nursing education programs because it helps them retain staff in an industry that is always short of qualified nurses.
Most American Nursing Associations like the American Nursing Association (ANA), American Nephrology Nursing Association (ANNA) and others are strong proponents of continuous nursing education. After all, it is a win-win situation for all concerned. And who would say not to happy, qualified nurses working in stress-free hospitals!
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