Free Nursing Continuing Education Courses
As a nurse you know that you are required to renew your license periodically and that in order to do so you must have a certain number of continuing education courses known as CEUs or continuing education units. As you know from your education to become a nurse, courses can become costly.
The good news is that there are free nursing continuing educations courses that can help you meet your requirements and save money at the same time.
Online
The first place to look for free courses to earn CEUs is online. You can find many websites that offer webinars and videos with related information that qualifies as continuing education credits. The only downside to some of these is the number of CEUs earned per course is often small. On the other hand, since they are free and accessible via the Internet you can do them in your own time and accumulate your credits over time.
Medline University: This is an online resource for clinical resources, training programs and medical products. There are many courses and webinars available at no charge once you register. You can sort through available courses based on theme and whether or not it offers CE credits.
American Nurses Association: This organization offers many free continuing education courses for nurses who are members. The organization also offers many low cost courses for continuing education.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Nurses can create an account and the search the CDC’s database of courses. After registering for the course and taking it, an evaluation of the course along with an examination are presented and when complete a CEU certificate can be printed.
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America: Nurses can earn 7 CEU’s with an online course in asthma management and education. The course is approved by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center‘s Commission on Accreditation.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: This division of the USHHS agency provides may continuing education courses that can be taken online. These courses are presented as PowerPoint presentations or slides and are accredited courses for earning CEUs. Topics available include breathing conditions, cancer ADHD and developmental delays, diabetes, muscle bone and joint conditions and many more. Many of the courses are provided to the agency by well-known medical schools such as Baylor University.
The Epilepsy Foundation: This online training course provides 1.5 CE hours and was developed in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The course was designed to educate people about the important of quick response time to seizures and is an accredited course for healthcare workers and law enforcement personnel.
Nurse Oncology Education Program: This program provides nurses with education on cancer and offers many free courses. Topics you can choose from include Cancer Survivorship, Cancer in Ages 15-3, Nurses Guide to Genetics and Cancer, Ovarian Cancer and many more. These CEUs are recognized in nearly every state; however, before you invest your time make sure your state will accept them.
ESP – Emerging Solutions in Pain: This site is dedicated to pain management for medical professionals and as such offers free online course for nurses that can help fulfill their CEU requirements. Classes are generally centered on pain and treatment options, topics include advances in pain and addiction, managing opioid use, addiction and many more topics centering on pain.
The National Healthcare Institute: This institute provides free courses such as a HIPPA course that covers the HIPPA privacy laws. The courses are accredited and approved by most all states. Courses offered vary from time to time and some have expiration dates so you need to check frequently to see what is being offered.
Nursing Schools: You should also check with any of the hundreds of nursing schools to find out if they offer free courses for CE credits, for example, Jacksonville University School of Nursing offers these occasionally. You should sign up to receive alerts when classes are available.
These are some of the many free nursing continuing education courses that are available on the Internet. As you can see, some are sponsored by specific agencies of medical conditions, such as the asthma and allergy courses or the epilepsy course and many are offered by government agencies. This is an excellent starting point when searching for CEUs without having to spend a fortune.
