Continuing Education in Healthcare: What You Need to Know
What are continuing education units (CEUs)?
Continuing Education Units (CEUs), sometimes known as continuing education (CE) credits, are educational requirements for most medical professions, and are required for physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, nurses, and other clinicians to remain licensed. Each state has their own regulations, so it’s important to check your local requirements—for example, California continuing education requirements for PTs and PTAs require 30 contact hours or 3.0 CEUs during their license renewal period; whereas Massachusetts continuing education requirements for PTs and PTAs require earning 24 contact hours including 2 hours in basic ethics or laws. These CEUs must be recognized by the states in which the medical professional is licensed.
What is the importance of continuing education for healthcare practitioners?
Continuing education is a requirement to stay certified and employed in most healthcare fields, because it is key to keeping up with the latest research and best practices to ensure that you’re providing optimal patient care. Professional certifications need to be renewed on a regular basis, though requirements will vary based on profession, specialization, and location.
Because the healthcare industry is constantly evolving, better understanding of new technologies, medications, and best practices that emerge will lead to better care for patients. Healthcare continuing education also presents new opportunities for personal and professional advancement, unlocking pathways for your career to grow. Whether it’s pursuing new specializations and certifications or just striving to practice at the top of your license, continuing education opens up new doors for healthcare practitioners.
What is the importance of continuing education for healthcare organizations?
The healthcare industry is extremely competitive, and organizations need to deliver an ever-increasing quality of care, while managing limited budgets. A skilled and motivated staff that is current with the latest best practices and technology in their field is not only a huge competitive advantage, but also ensures patients are receiving the best quality of care.
By providing a comprehensive continuing education solution that provides practitioners with opportunities to earn CEUs, work toward certifications, and engage in other educational programs, your organization will become far more attractive when recruiting talent. A robust continuing education program also helps with staff retention initiatives, as staff are more likely to stay when their employer is actively investing in their career growth and development.
How can I get healthcare CEUs?
There are a number of ways to earn CEUs, including accredited online or in-person classes, live webinars, and conferences. While in-person learning and conferences were the industry norm for decades, earning CEUs online has never been easier. E-learning opportunities, such as accredited online courses and live webinars, allow practitioners to train at their convenience without the disruption of travel and work absences. Keep in mind that for a CE credit to count toward your hours, it must be from a state-approved accredited program and administered by an approved CEU provider.
Do live webinars count as live continuing education?
Live webinars are approved for CEUs by most states and healthcare disciplines and are considered the same as in-person continuing education. However, as each state has different requirements, it’s important to check in with your local licensing board to confirm that you will receive credit. It is also important to remember that you will need to be able to participate in a way that simulates being there in person. For example, many MedBridge Live Webinars are accredited and qualify for participants to earn CEUs, but to receive CEU credit, all participants must attend the webinar for the full duration, complete the quiz with a minimum score of 70 percent, and complete the participant survey.
Does MedBridge provide live webinars that provide CEUs?
MedBridge presents several accredited and non-accredited webinars each month featuring industry experts exploring trends, evidence-based practice, and regulations to improve clinical and financial outcomes.
Live Webinars for Healthcare Professionals
These webinars, which are free for subscribers, offer clinicians the opportunity to earn live CEUs from the comfort of their home or office, with industry-leading professionals leading evidence-based sessions that count towards live continuing education requirements without the cost and time associated with live courses. Clinicians also have the opportunity to join the discussion and ask questions in real time throughout the webinar.
While these non-accredited free webinars don’t qualify for CEUs, this unique opportunity provides valuable insight into industry trends, new regulations, and best practices from seasoned experts who are masters of their profession. Viewers can gain timely, valuable insight into the latest happenings in the industry and pressing regulatory updates like Remote Therapeutic Monitoring and Home Health Value-Based Purchasing, as well as important topics like population health management and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
How can MedBridge help with continuing education?
MedBridge partners with the top instructors from across the world to bring clinicians the highest quality education without the cost associated with off-line courses. With over 2,000 accredited courses across multiple disciplines and specialties and 50+ new courses added monthly based on new research and client requests, our evidence-based online continuing education provides your organization with a cost-effective means to increase consistency of care, better serve your patients, and improve outcomes. That’s how MedBridge has helped thousands of organizations improve their continuing education programs, resulting in improvements in staff retention rates and significant financial savings.
Pivot Physical Therapy leveraged MedBridge Continuing Education and Learning Management System (LMS) to improve staff retention by offering ongoing professional development opportunities, developing a robust mentorship program, and providing guided career paths for specialization. Using MedBridge Knowledge Tracks, including OCS, GCS, and SCS specialties, they saw a 75 percent reduction in staff attrition, and $250,000 in savings resulting from improved staff retention.
Freeman Health System also leveraged MedBridge to reduce costs and improve outcomes by utilizing the continuing education and patient engagement solutions on the MedBridge platform. By offering their clinicians convenient access to high-quality, ongoing professional development opportunities and streamlining management and consistency of clinical education across all of their locations, they saw a 23 percent savings on continuing education and Home Exercise Program (HEP) across the organization.
Here’s how we do it:
Get unlimited access to a library featuring thousands of accredited, evidence-based courses and live webinars on a variety of topics and specialties. This includes our Physical Therapy Courses, Occupational Therapy Courses, Athletic Training Courses, and Nursing Courses.
MedBridge Certificate Programs
Distinguish yourself, have confidence in your practice, and become a better clinician. Take a series of courses taught by industry-leading instructors and participate in interactive learning assessments, case study reviews and quizzes.
Access CE courses from your iOS or Android device! Whether you’re on the go or at home, you can access the course library to discover new courses, complete in-progress courses, and review completed courses.
Pass the test, gain expertise, and elevate the profession—all while earning CEUs. Included in your annual subscription at no extra cost, so you can study for the SCS, OCS, GCS, NCS, PCS, CHT, and CRRN.
