As a Nurse, you’ve committed years to learn the practices and procedures required to deliver healthcare safely and effectively to patients. Studying a degree approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) makes sure your education is in line with the current needs of the healthcare sector. But your learning journey doesn’t stop once you gain your registration and become a Nurse.
Nurses, like any other regulated professionals, must complete a certain amount of continuing professional development (CPD) each year to stay registered. And with the rate medical processes and procedures are advancing, it’s no wonder Nurses need continual training.
CPD training courses for Nurses help you stay on top of the many evolving aspects of healthcare. You need to be knowledgeable about a vast spectrum of health conditions and the methods that are currently used to treat them. As these change, the updates covered in CPD training courses for Nurses allow you to continue doing your job effectively.
It may seem like an excessive amount of training, but CPD for Nurses is important for so many reasons. Your knowledge and skills will continue to improve throughout the duration of your career, as will your ability to treat and care for the direct health of patients in your ward.
Find out the reasons why CPD is important for Nurses below.
What is Continuing Professional Development?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) allows you to maintain professional credentials and develop your skills through short courses or on-the-job training.
In nursing, it is used to help staff keep pace with sector advancements, new treatments, new technologies or approaches to care. So, they can deliver high quality, safe and effective care in all capacities and settings.
Nursing CPD training can include:
- Attending conferences and workshops
- Being a coach or mentor
- Completing college or university-level education or training, distance learning courses and webinars
- Peer review activities
- Receiving coaching or mentoring
- Reading and reviewing publications
- Secondments and shadowing others
- Structured clinical supervision
- Taking part in clinical audits
- Undertaking research
- Visiting different practice environments
CPD training courses for Nurses are in addition to any mandatory and statutory training that you are provided in your organisation, as that kind of training must be undertaken by all staff regardless of personal safety and safe and efficient service delivery. It also reduces organisational risks and helps healthcare services ensure they’ve met their legislative duties.
However, just because CPD training courses for Nurses are in addition to mandatory and statutory training, it doesn’t take away from their value or importance.
Why is CPD Important for Nurses?
As a Nurse, CPD will play a significant part in your professional and personal development. It will also help you contribute to improved patient outcomes, which in the long term increases the public’s confidence in the healthcare system.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also believes that CPD training courses for Nurses are important for creating a healthier and happier workplace. All the research points towards a strong correlation between learning and well-being. Staff skill development can also enhance productivity, inspire innovation, and lead to increased retention in nursing teams.
Besides the professional development and training necessary to carry out your role and responsibilities, as a Nurse, you should also be supported to attain further qualifications. This enables you to provide evidence to regulators, showing that you meet the professional standards needed to continue to practise.
Through CPD and other training, Nurses can continue to meet the health needs of their patients in advanced and efficient ways.
Other Learning Resources for Nurses
One extremely convenient way to complete CPD is via online distance learning courses. They enable you to study subjects highly relevant to your role, but at a time that fits comfortably around your work schedule.
Just some of the courses you can take are:
Understanding Mental Health
This course helps you understand the attitudes and perceptions of mental health, well-being and how both change over time. You’ll study the impact of mental health issues on the individual and the wider community. As well as what can be done to support them, which is highly beneficial in your role as a nurse.
Clinical Nutrition
The course teaches you about the ways food can affect physical health and the overall sense of well-being. You will also study the links between nutrition and disease and examine the workings of the metabolism.
Grief and Bereavement Counselling
This course provides insight into the various attitudes to death, including the four different phases of grief. It addresses bereavement in children separately and examines when expressions of grief become unhealthy. It’s an ideal complement to nursing training for any nurse working on an end-of-life ward, or in hospices.
Eating Disorders
This course explores the complex reasons why people develop conditions such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa. As well as other types of eating disorders. Helping nurses better understand patients admitted with these disorders.
Drug, Solvent & Alcohol Misuse Counselling Course
This course sets out in simple form the essentials for understanding alcohol and drug issues in order to make individual assessments, give appropriate help and make referrals to the relevant agencies where necessary. Which can benefit nurses working with patients with misuse issues.
Caring for Older People Certificate
With our ageing population, more nurses are required to work with elderly patients in society. As such, this course provides a thorough understanding of how best to care for old people. The modules will cover everything from the physiology of ageing to holistic care methods. The course will also examine relevant government policy and analyse how these regulations affect the elderly community.
Caring for People with Learning Disabilities
Nurses can often work with patients who have learning disabilities, so having specific skills in this area can be really helpful. This course, therefore, aims to educate people about the best ways to help and understand people with a range of different learning difficulties.
Understanding the Principles of Dementia Care
Dementia affects more than 850,000 people in the UK. So, it’s no surprise that nurses will work with patients dealing with dementia in different areas of care. This course teaches you about the different types of dementia, the importance of early diagnosis, the impact of dementia and person-centred approaches in dementia care. Plus, the vital role communication, interaction and inclusion play in the support and care of individuals with the condition.
End of Life Care
Many patients will come into contact with or stay permanently within healthcare facilities as they approach the end of their lives. That’s why it’s important for nurses to be prepared for and have skills in this particular type of care. This course looks at the key principles of caring for end-of-life patients in a wide range of care settings. Including hospices, care homes, care in the community and primary care.
Start Progressing Your Career Today
If you’re reading this as a new Nurse, we can help you keep up with your CPD requirements. learndirect is the leading UK distance learning provider, with many online courses to help you continue your professional development.
The courses above and many more provide you with knowledge and skills that will complement your role as a Nurse. What’s more, you can complete them online, at home or within the time set aside in your workday for CPD training.
Our courses are popular for businesses looking to upskill their workforce. We’ve already helped more than 75,000 businesses equip their employees with new skills that enable them to be more effective in their roles. You and the Nurses you work with can also benefit from this affordable and flexible training.
Our CPD training courses for Nurses are delivered online and you have the ability to spread the cost of your course through various payment plans. Find out more about the courses you can take for CPD purposes by visiting our website.
