Advances in Continuing Education for Health Professionals

Are you a health care professional seeking continuing education credits for licensing or other professional reasons? Are you not sure what is out there for you, but know that you need something that is useful and accessible given your busy schedule?

Health care providers, from physicians and nurses to social workers and counselors, share a professional and legal commitment to continuous learning. Staying current with information and practices not only allows you to maintain their various licenses and certifications but also insures that you provide the standard of care necessary today. Fortunately there are now options to fit nearly every schedule and inclination.

In content and delivery method, the options have increased considerably over the last decade. While many service providers may elect to deepen or sharpen their knowledge and skills in their original areas of specialization, others use the continuing education requirement as an opportunity to widen their base of knowledge and tools. Many of these instructional avenues also lead towards certification, which can add to your ability to further serve your current patients or clients or lead you to new career paths.

Furthermore, in addition to the traditional venues of classroom instruction and conference workshops, the prevalence of continuing education via distance education on line has skyrocketed. What this means for you as the educational consumer is that courses are available on an amazingly wide variety of topics can by highly qualified instructors. These generally entail a lower overall cost, given the expense of travel and lodging, not to mention the cost of any cancellation of clients in order to attend courses in person.

Here are just some of the fields in which continuing education and certification is available for those who care for the bodies, minds, and spirits.

· Hypnotherapy

· Grief counseling

· Holistic and integrative health care

· Pastoral thanatology

· Stress management

· Meditation instructor

· Crisis intervention

· Spiritual counseling

· Health care life coach

· Case management

· Legal nurse consulting

· Forensic nursing

While some of these areas pertain only to particular professions (e.g., only nurses can do legal or forensic nursing), other areas such as stress management and grief counseling can be very relevant for providers across the spectrum. Regardless of the presenting symptoms or issues, almost anyone can benefit from a doctor, nurse, pastor, or counselor who can provide help with stress management, for example. Also, grief strikes us all eventually, and knowing what to expect and how to help can do much for those who look to you for compassion and guidance.

Some tracks are clearly oriented toward management issues, such as case management and legal nurse consulting, whereas others are more relevant to actual services, e.g., spiritual counseling and crisis intervention. Even meditation has been shown to have applications in both medical and psychological services.

In choosing continuing education courses, it is important to consider which focus will best meet your patients’ needs as well as those that may be required or advised by your current or future employer, if relevant. As you choose your educational provider, decide if you want an institution that can provide additional training and even certification, if desirable or necessary.

In a world with rapidly advancing technology and research, keeping up to date on a wide variety of issues that affect you and those you help can be a rewarding and exciting experience.