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As a nursing student, you may have heard nurses or other students talk about a LPN CEU.
Though you won't need to worry about a CEU until it's time to renew your nursing license,
it's still good to know what it is and how it applies to your nursing career. After all,
you'll need to fulfill CEU requirements for as long as you want to keep practicing as a nurse.
What is a LPN?
A LPN is a Licensed Practical Nurse. In order to become licensed as a LPN, you have to
have a high school diploma (or GED) and have gone through the certification program. In
hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities, LPNs work under the direction of
Registered Nurses and doctors to help take care of patients. They are largely responsible
for the comfort of their patients. This can involve anything from bathing and dressing them
to moving them to procedure rooms for tests to administering medications.
What is a CEU?
A CEU is a continuing education course required for renewing your license, determined
by your state licensing board. These courses are required to help regulate nursing. They
help ensure you know the skills and techniques needed in the healthcare field, they update
you on medical advancements, and they refresh your memory on healthcare standards. This way,
the state licensing board can be sure that your patients are receiving quality care from you.
It protects the healthcare industry, but ultimately it's to protect and care for your patients,
and that's probably why you became a nurse in the first place!
What is a LPN CEU?
LPN CEUs are geared toward the work that Licensed Practical Nurses do every day, making
it easy to adapt what you learn into your career. The continuing education courses you
take will teach you skills and techniques you can immediately start using on your patients,
and refresh your memory about how to do things to take the best care of your patients possible.
Depending on the rules set down by your state licensing board, you may have a wide variety of
options for what CEUs you can take, and when. Talking to your state licensing board will give
you more information about your continuing education courses, and where you can get credit for
them.
Continuing education is an important part of the career of any Licensed Practical Nurse.
Learning new skills and techniques will help you help your patients better, and you'll be
sure that you're meeting state standards of care, as well as taking the best care of your
patients that you can. You don't have to be intimidated by your LPN CEU. Instead, learn as
much about your CEU requirements as you can ahead of time, and you'll be prepared for them.
That way, you won't have any trouble renewing your LPN license.
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