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Sharpen Your Skills With Online Courses
By
admin
Feb 8, 2013
Posted In
Career Management
Want to make yourself more marketable by adding skills or boosting your knowledge base? It’s no longer necessary to return to a college campus, or even to attend a training seminar. Almost anything you need to learn can be learned online.
“Online education allows busy healthcare professionals the opportunity to obtain the education and training necessary to advance their careers in health and human services [without] stepping away from their posts at their individual healthcare organizations to attend a traditional program,” says Erik Southard, FNP, DNP, who has taken numerous online courses.
“Online education is certainly one of the most effective methods at our disposal when looking to advance our careers as working healthcare professionals. When looking at a long list of applicants for a short list of positions, human resource professionals are drawn to candidates who are able to show evidence that they have gone above and beyond the norm to increase their skill and knowledge,” says Southard.
Reputable online educational sources
1. Online training companies. A number of websites are dedicated to offering online continuing education for health professionals. For instance, ComplianceLogix.com is focused on regulatory compliance training for healthcare professionals. Other sites for more general healthcare education include ThunderbirdHealthcare.com, which offers online ACLS, BLS and PALS certification; and Medscape.org, which provides CME and CE credits for reviewing online seminars.
How do you know which types of courses work well online? Traditionally, “training courses are delivered as either hands-on, structured on the job training or classroom based,” says Brett Vengroff, principal consultant at ComplianceLogix. “Most courses that are traditionally offered in a classroom or seminar presentation format are suitable for online learning. Also, topics required for new employee orientation and annual regulatory compliance training courses are particularly suited for online learning.”
2. Professional associations. Many healthcare professional associations now offer continuing education courses online, often at no charge or with reduced rates for members. For example, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses offers several interactive e-learning activities, says Katie Aylett, the organization’s communications consultant.
Last October, the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals began offering its online Fundamentals of Rheumatology course for nurses working in the field. In its first three months online, 31 registrants have purchased 96 modules. The organization plans to begin offering 30-minute videos online as quick learning tools with CME credit.
3. Your current employer. If you’re currently employed, take advantage of any online learning your company may offer. For instance, Home Care Assistance, a leader in senior in-home care, provides its caregivers five online feature trainings and two staff trainings on HomeCare Assistance University. The online education program certifies caregivers in programs including the Balanced Care Method, Hospital to Home Care, and Alzheimer’s Care, and the company plans to add one course every month in 2013.
4. Colleges and universities. Even if you don’t step foot on campus, you can still learn from leading thinkers in higher education. For instance, massive open online courses (MOOCs), allow anyone to learn from professors at universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford, with no tuition costs required. There are courses to help professionals brush up on the finer points of new healthcare legislation, or to boost their skills of managing people.
If you actually want to enroll in college, you can do that completely online as well. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Nursing has just launched a new online program for registered nurses to earn bachelor’s degrees in nursing in as little as six months. Because the courses are completely online, students have 24-hour access to their classes, online technical support, assistance in developing their degree plans and learning support.
Written by Nancy Mann Jackson
© Health Callings, Dice Holdings Inc., 2013