Nursing-CEs is committed to advancing nursing practice as well as other medical professionals who work in the hospital setting and have the opportunity to advance their practice through educational leave. Continuing education is a professional measurement of the number of hours of education completed. His allow medical professional who are not required to have a license to still utilize continuing education.
Health care providers who have been in practice for many years are still sometimes confused by the terms continuing education unit, contact hour, CE hour, CE credits or CEU. The confusion is understandable as many providers, some states and marketing materials tend to use the terms interchangeably. There is in fact a difference
- Continuing education- a more generic term for continuing education or CE which is used by non-college or university level education.
- Contact hour– the amount of “seat time” or “learning time” that has been approved for a specific educational program. Nursing contact hours are usually reported as CNE–Continuing Nursing Education
- Credit hour– the amount of “seat time” or “learning time” that has been approved for a specific educational program. Physician credit hours are usually reported as CME–Continuing Medical Education
- Continuing education unit (CEU)– This term is perhaps the most confusing and misused term in continuing education. The term is primarily used in academic settings at the college and university level. It is a designation of course time/instruction where one hour is equal to 0.10 CEUs. This division by 10 means that 10 hours of instruction (or participation) is equal to one CEU. If you see the term CEU used, it should always contain the decimal point to show the fraction of hours. The term is a generic reference to any and all continuing education activities. Be sure to read the program content and ask questions if you are not sure.
between these terms.
