How Much Does a Nursing Continuing Education Course Cost?
Many nurses are well alert to the necessity to take continuing education courses. Not just do employers want to view a continuously updated education, but a large proportion, if not totally all, states mandate that nurses take continuing education courses to be qualified to receive re-licensing.
Put another way, without having a certain amount of RN CEUS (or CEUs for short), a nurse cannot renew their license to practice in the state. So, clearly, taking courses is of absolute necessity to any or all nurses. However, the big question that a lot of folks have is just how much does a nursing continuing education course cost? Unfortunately, there's no simple answer to this question as the prices vary greatly between institutions. With that said, it's often possible to break up the prices into a couple of major categories: those taken at professional nursing associations and those obtained from extraneous online places.
A specialist CEU for Nurses course made available from a respected association such as the American Nursing Credentialing Center will more than likely run you in the $100s, if not more. Online PowerPoint courses are normally the lowest priced with the rates starting from a hundred or two and working up from there. Conferences can be the absolute most expensive as they encompass an entry fee plus plane fare if the conference isn't being hosted in your house city. Obviously, the cash isn't necessarily wasted. Conferences are often one of the greatest continuing education opportunities which are available since they are usually filled with speakers who are experts in their respective field.
Online courses obtained from "random" those sites are often significantly cheaper. Many sites which are credentialed by way of a major association offer subscription services. What this means is as you are able to take as many CEUs in annually as you'd like for a dirt cheap price of probably under $100 per year. Naturally, in terms of the education, you receive that which you pay for. They certainly won't have exactly the same informative level as you'd expect from a leader in the field giving a seminar on his/her section of expertise. However, if its the credit hours you're after, these sites will provide a nursing continuing education course at extremely low prices. Just be sure that you verify that the site is credentialed by an association that the state accepts. If you don't check this out, you might find that you end up wasting a lot of time and effort without much return.
So, the solution to the question "just how much does a nursing continuing education course cost?" is very hard to answer since it highly depends about what you're looking for. On usually the one hand, you can get dirt cheap credit hours that may not be particularly informative or substantial. On the other hand, if you're searching for highly engaging events, you may be better served by considering your association for conferences and other meetings which are happening in your area. These will most likely provide better information than online sites.