By Hope Horton, Site Engagement Manager

For those of you who need to get continuing (medical) education (CME/CE) for your licensure, there are many ways to go about it.  Different states have varying requirements. For example, under California law, physicians must complete 50 hours and nurses 30 hours during each bienniel renewal cycle.  Many other states such as Arizona, Colorado and Maine, to name a few, require no CEs for nurses. For physicians, all states save for New York, Montana, and South Dakota require CMEs — the amount and frequency of which vary per state and whether the certification is for a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy. Here are some helpful links in case you need to look up your state requirements: For physicians: https://www.boardvitals.com/blog/cme-requirements-by-state/ For nurses: https://www.aaaceus.com/state_nursing_requirements.asp

One option for obtaining CE/CMEs is to attend a conference in your specialty. A two to three day conference can often give you enough credits to cover the requirement for what is typically a two year time frame. Physicians can also obtain CME through manuscript writing, earning a medically-related advanced degree, faculty teaching and test item writing.

While there are many online options which can be fee based or free, my favorite is one called Medscape (www.medscape.com). Medscape provides medical news and clinical briefs in a variety of specialties. You can search by topic or disease process and also choose in many cases, if you want to view the information as a power point or a video. There are articles which provide educational credits, and others which don’t.  If you want to receive educational units, it notes the amount of credit given — the longer the presentation, the more credit given.  There is a test at the end which you have to pass, but you get unlimited chances to answer correctly.

I often find myself reading medical articles which come to my email feed. Why not opt for ones which not only educate you, but also help you maintain your licensure? There is a world of complimentary information out there!