Advancing Asthma Treatment- Webcast 8/8/09

This is the first CEU that I've tried at this site. It's also my first webcast. I think I'm going to like webcasts cause I can listen while I'm doing something else like writing my blog, for example. It's long as in 88 minutes and it covers pathophys as well as treatments. Nothing revolutionary here, just a new way of using old stuff. At the end you'll earn 1.5 CEU's.

Title:

A Team Approach to Advance the Treatment and Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Type: webcast
Expiration Date: 7/16/2010

Website:
http://freecne.ce-web.com
need to sign up

Price: Free

Program Overview:
Suboptimal control of asthma remains a significant clinical problem for clinicians. New asthma treatment guidelines that became available have been well-received by the community of practitioners who treat patients with asthma. Indeed, there was an important unmet need for revised recommendations given the inadequate utilization by asthma treaters of previous evidence-based recommendations. It is of particular importance that clinicians who manage this disease gain familiarity with new evidence-based guidance in order to successfully incorporate guideline-recommended strategies into contemporary clinical practice.

This program will review state-of-the-art evidence-based guidance on how to manage asthma, discuss how current guidelines differ from previous recommendations, and explore potential clinical implications of these changes. Moreover, the program will analyze the reasons for suboptimal asthma control and propose current and emerging strategies to overcome barriers to optimal control.

Sponsor:

This activity is co-provided by SCEPTER™, Global Education Group, and Quintiles Medical Education.

List of all courses available through this website:
http://freecne.ce-web.com/gallcourses.php

Medscape - Good in California

Straight from the Medscape website:

Are the Nursing Contact Hours Offered by Medscape Accepted by the State of California?

According to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) Web site, the BRN will accept continuing education courses "approved by ANCC [American Nurses Credentialing Center] approved regional accrediting bodies when these courses are taken out-of-state." (See http://www.rn.ca.gov/coned/ce-renewal.htm#acc.)

As a company registered in New York, the BRN recognizes Medscape as an out-of-state entity. Additionally, all accredited content on Medscape is provided by entities accepted by ANCC. We do suggest, however, that you check directly with the BRN for information about the acceptability of a particular activity.

A good place to study?

OK, this is off topic but not really, as I'm a student and what's more important than a coffee shop with free WIFI and good vittles? I live in Santa Cruz and my favorite coffee shop the Coffee Cat in Scotts Valley, has pulled the plug on its internet service a couple of weeks ago. The owner claims (as cited in a company wide email) that he wants to take the company in a different direction including putting in a sandwich bar and improving the quality of the food and maybe having live music. Although I wish him well, I know that I won't be going back as much. Doing a research paper is nigh on impossible without WIFI these days. However, in this neighborhood there aren't many options, something I think the Coffee Cat is counting on. I found out if you have Starbuck gift card, and it was puchased or refreshed in the last 30 days, you can get 2 hours of free WIFI per day, better than nothing, I say.

California CEU Requirements

This is THE bible according to CA CEU's for RNs, straight from the CA BRN. It lists what courses are acceptable and what are not.
What can be used for credit is pretty broad, but there are exceptions and giving you a rundown might be useful. For example, although yoga and weight loss classes would keep a person healthy and possibly sane, they can't be used for CEU's. Spanish and any other verbal language courses are OK, sign language is given a thumbs down. For those going on in their formal education, note that the required basic courses in physical, social and behavioral sciences for RNs who are obtaining a baccalaureate or graduate degree or specialty certification can be used. Statistics also counts, which is useful since most BSN and MSN programs require that you have taken Stats within the last 3 years, some even require anatomy and physiology within the last 5 years as well. So by the time a new ADN graduates, she will have taken Stats about 5 years before because the wait lists are so long. It's good to know that taking it again will be useful for something else. This is the rate: one quarter unit is equivalent to ten contact hours and one semester unit counts as fifteen contact hours. So my Stats class, would be worth 60 hours, more than enough to meet the 30 contact hours required for two years. Lastly and most interestingly, "self-improvement" classes do not qualify, however, assertiveness training does and I don't think anyone would argue that assertiveness isn't self improvement.

Evaluating Free CEU's - Introduction.

Even though I've had my RN license less than a year I've been thinking about CEU's. I thought I would have a job by now in a hospital and this topic would take care of itself, meaning I'd take them through my place of employment. But that doesn't seem to be happening for me immediately. Also, in talking with many of my friends are now working in long term care. The bottom line is this: I've seen many sources that offer free or cheap CEU's, but are they worth the time to do? That's what I'm going to find out. I'm going to do 2 to 3 CEU's per week and let you know what I've found. let me know what you think.