Health care professionals can take online classes to satisfy continuing education requirements.
Medical professionals are required to complete periodic continuing education courses in order to have their licenses renewed. Nonprofit industry organizations, for-profit education services, state licensing boards, universities and hospitals all serve as providers of online continuing education. For some professions such as nursing, industry organizations and licensing boards maintain lists of accredited training programs.
Physicians
Doctors must continue training throughout their careers to keep abreast of research and technological advances in medicine. On a more practical level, state boards require that they earn continuing medical education (CME) credit in order to have their licenses renewed. Each state has different CME requirements. All CME must be approved by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. Major medical schools like Harvard University offer online CME courses on their websites for doctors all over the world. Some providers like the Discovery Channel offer webcasts that can be counted as CME. Medical facilities like the Cleveland Clinic offer free online CME in specialty areas. A list of all online CME options can be found at cmelist.com.
Nurses
Nurses must also participate in continuing education in order to be relicensed by state boards. Continuing nursing education (CNE) must be approved by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The organization lists several options for online CNE including online PowerPoint Web courses and web-based workshops. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing maintains a list of state licensing boards. These state agencies maintain lists of all approved CNE providers operating within their borders, including those that offer online classes.
Physical Therapists
The American Physical Therapy Association maintains a list of online continuing education opportunities for physical therapists as well as links to all state chapters. Chapter websites list online training programs and information on state-specific continuing education unit (CEU) relicensing requirements.
Dentists
The American Dental Association (ADA) serves as a clearinghouse for continuing education and licensure information for dentists and dental professionals. It maintains an online library of all ADA continuing education courses, giving dentists a one-stop shop of coursework needed to maintain their status as practitioners and satisfy state board regulations. The Journal of the American Dental Association offers four articles in each issue with online course content that can be counted toward CEU.
Natural Health Care Professionals
Natural health care providers like acupuncturists, naturopathic physicians and Chinese herbalists must all be state licensed and maintain educational requirements like other medical professionals. The oldest naturopathic medical school in the country, the National College of Natural Medicine, maintains a continuing education website of accredited continuing education classes for a wide variety of natural health care professionals.
Tags: continuing education, licensing boards, list online, American Dental, American Dental Association
