Are you working in the medical field? While every job is different within the industry, one thing remains the same: you are never done with your education.
Luckily, nearly 40% of healthcare employers offer these mandatory units to their staff, and you may be in that slim minority!
Well, continuing education is absolutely critical in the medical field for many reasons, and you should be ready for it when the time comes for yours! Here’s why!
Why Continuing Education Matters In The Medical Field
While you may think the only reason that completing your continuing medical education (CMEs) is to maintain your license, this is far from the case.
The reason the medical field has so many constant continuing education requirements is rather simple; the field changes all the time. New discoveries in medicine come all the time, along with changes in ethics standards and best practices, and people in the field need to stay up to date.
That’s not all, however. It also helps ensure you maintain your general knowledge by giving you reminders of various techniques or medical information that you may have otherwise forgotten about.
Quality Of Care
The most important benefit of all for continuing your education is the benefit to the patients. You probably got into the medical field for them, right?
Well, the more educated you are, the better the help you can bring them. With constant changes in techniques and procedures, new technologies popping up, and years since you graduated college, there’s always plenty to catch up on. The whole society benefits from having trained, educated health professionals in it.
Don’t Simply Skate By
Getting the minimum amount of credits is okay for maintaining your certification, but going the extra mile really has its benefits. Even if you stick to the minimum amount of credits, make sure you’re getting the most out of them. Don’t just try to pass a test and forget all about it. You might get some useful information that will come in handy some day, maybe even saving a life.
Have you ever met that nurse or other medical professional who maintains their certification by doing the bare minimum, and is proud of it? Well, they really shouldn’t be. Not only does it affect the quality of care that they can provide to their patients, which is bad enough, but it also affects them and their standing in their career.
Personal Benefits
There are plenty of benefits to both you, your patients, and your employer when you continue your education. A more educated staff improves the outcomes of a hospital or other medical setting by a lot.
Oftentimes, you can even receive these units for free. Find out if your employer covers the cost of your CMEs, or even part of them. The value of the education is worth the money, so if you can get them covered, here’s why you should be excited!
Growing In Your Profession
Growth in any profession makes you more valuable to your place of work, improves your confidence in your job, makes you more knowledgable on different subjects, and plenty more. Professional growth is always a good reason for continuing your education, regardless of the field.
More Opportunity
Speaking of growth, how about potential raises and promotions? Well, the more educated you are in your field, the more likely this is. If you’re looking to move on to other jobs later on, having CEUs, especially ones not required by your employer, establishes a lot more credibility in the field.
Rebuilding Your Passion
Do you ever feel like each day is the same and you start to feel a little burnout? That’s common in the medical field. However, continuing your education can spark your interest once again by challenging your brain on what’s new and what’s possible in the field!
Sometimes we all need a reminder of why we got into our fields so we can stay motivated at work. These courses can give us the refresher we need.
Learn New Skills
Giving us a refresher in something we learned years ago and never used, or teaching us an entirely new skill are excellent benefits of CMEs. There are plenty of continuing education courses to choose from, regardless of your career in the medical field. For example, a very popular choice is the Ultrasound CME.
This can make you more well-rounded in your profession, or even help you find a specific niche that you want to pursue in the field!
Keep Your Certification Active
Even if you left the medical field, for whatever reason you did, keeping up with your CME is important to keeping your certification active, so if you ever decide to go back, you won’t have any issues making the transition.
If you’re in the medical field and planning to stay, it’s absolutely critical that you maintain your licenses and certifications so you aren’t hit with any surprises and forced into unpaid leave or anything like that.
Stay Up To Date
Keep up to date on your continuing education, as well as your self education. The more you know, the more you grow.
Taking an extra course can set you apart from the competition when you’re looking for a new job or a promotion, so take it seriously. Also, focus on the content of the course so you can keep providing quality care to your patients! Keep up the hard work, essential workers! We need you!