You might think that after a nurse has completed her training and achieved registered status, that she doesn't need to worry about any further learning. All she needs to do is get on with caring for patients and mopping fevered brows.

However, the reality couldn't be further from the truth. It is very important that a nurse ensures her nursing continuing education is kept up to date, and is an essential part of maintaining registration.

Life for a nurse in the 21st century is very high-speed. Medical and surgical procedures constantly improve, and it is a nurse's duty to make sure she keeps at the forefront of all major changes and advances. As the working hours of a nurse can be long and arduous, it can prove to be very difficult to find time to study in order to keep up to date. Ensuring that nursing continuing education is kept on top of is definitely not easy.

However in order for their nurses to carry on with nursing continuing education, good hospitals will ensure they provide everything their nurses require. The training of a registered nurse should be provided free to nurses who wish to pursue nursing continuing education. If this happens, it means that any registered nurse should have access to the education required for nursing continuing education.

Nurses can keep themselves up to date with their nursing continui

ng education by reading nursing periodicals and magazines. It is also essential that they can prove they have read these articles.

In order to do this, nurses can keep a portfolio to document their education and training received since registration. By writing a synopsis of article they have read, and commenting on what they have learnt, they an exhibit proof of their ongoing commitment to nursing continuing education.

Access to further education can be blocked to some people due to the high costs involved. Nursing is not a highly paid profession, and degrees and other high level qualifications are often out of reach for many people just because the nurses cannot afford the courses. Nursing continuing education should become more accessible, as more employers come round to the idea of funding courses for the registered nurses who work for them.

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