To maintain the competency of nurses and other health professionals, a minimum number of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours must be completed on an annual basis. These CPD hours should be relevant to the nurses’ practice, enabling them to improve and broaden their knowledge and expertise for better patient outcomes. The number of CPD hours or units depends on your nursing regulatory board. In Australia, at least 20 hours of CPD are mandatory for registered nurses, while in the US, each state has its requirements. It is best to confirm with your nursing board regarding the required CPD hours that you need to complete.
However, even with today’s advancements in technology and organizations using innovative ways to participate and complete CPD activities, it is still difficult to find CPD opportunities. As with most things in life, there are different strokes for different folks. Some nurses prefer online courses for convenience, some choose the traditional classroom environment for better learning, while others opt to use social media for their professional development.
This article provides a list of 13 free CPD resources applicable to registered nurses around the world. Encompassing a broad range of topics, there are sure to be CPD options to suit everyone.
Ready4Response is a core curriculum with three tiers that aims to provide consistent learning standards for emergency response workforces, which includes nurses. This course emphasizes the importance of getting the right people with the right skills and training at the right time and location to save lives, especially in unforeseen scenarios. The need for an effective emergency response team has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused widespread fear across the globe. This course is accredited for CPD.
While OpenWHO does not always give formal accreditation, it still offers other free courses that can provide digital certificates of completion after passing the final assessment. The majority of their topics focus on pandemics, infectious diseases, and emergency care. Most of these courses take 1 to 6 hours to complete, and feature videos, quizzes, and downloadable resources for you to go through wherever you are.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, also offers free CPD courses for US registered nurses. They have topics covering tuberculosis, tickborne disease, and antibiotic stewardship, among others. The National Healthcare Safety Network under the CDC also has a wide range of teaching components to choose from, such as dialysis, long-term care facilities, and outpatient procedures. This organization has numerous free CPD options for you to choose from!
After successful completion of the courses, you are required to sign up and register on the CDC TRAIN website first to get a copy of the certificates. You can find further instructions on how to print your continuing education certificates by clicking on this link https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/training/continuing-edu.html.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), together with the National Blood Clot Alliance, have recently relaunched the Stop the Clot®—What Every Healthcare Professional Should Know e-learning course for healthcare professionals, such as doctors, registered nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, and others.
This free self-paced online course has been kept up to date to give evidence-based information on and best practices for the identification, treatment, and management of individuals who are suffering from blood clots and other clotting disorders.
Similar to the CDC’s way of printing the completion certificates, you would need to visit the CDC’s TRAIN website to register.
The National Health Service in England is another health body that provides free CPD hours for nurses in the UK. Nurses working for the NHS get access to this learning portal through their Electronic Staff Record (ESR) account, while those who do not have an ESR can gain access to this training hub by creating an account on OpenAthens.
This learning website contains tens of thousands of e-sessions covering many areas that are available for use. Trainings also vary in their length, some can be done in minutes, and others in hours. If you are a registered nurse in the UK looking for CPD courses at no cost, you might want to check this one out.
Established in 1922 by six nursing students, the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) now has more than 100,000 active members with 600 chapters at higher education institutions and healthcare partners worldwide. Sigma members include empowered nurses in different fields, such as administration, academia, research, and entrepreneurship, all united to achieve the society’s vision: To transform global healthcare.
Most of the CPD webinars and journals you’ll find on this organization’s website are about nursing leadership and management, as well as research. These sessions typically last 1 to 2 hours, and certificates will be provided upon completion of the live webinars. You’ll need to become a member of the STTI to access their free online courses, although selected content is available for non-members.
If you are interested in nursing leadership and clinical excellence, this one might be a good option for you!
Offered for free by Healthcare Excellence Canada, the estimated completion time of this program is 4 hours. This self-directed course is designed to help nurses understand the core of patient safety and touches on a lot of topics, such as the journey to patient safety, cultural differences, and the analysis of safety incidents and their impact on the patients, caregivers, and family members.
They also provide an 8-hour free module entitled “Effective Governance for Quality and Patient Safety” for nurses in different leadership roles. The course can help them excel in their senior positions and use it to further improve patient care.
To enroll in these modules, you’ll just have to check them out in your shopping cart for a zero fee, and you’re good to go! If you are a registered nurse in Canada looking for a free online course with CPD units, you might want to try these out.
This free online course by CEUFast is applicable to a lot of nursing specialties and is accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This module focuses on measles, its pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, and the disease’s effect on society before and after vaccination.
While they do give out free online CPD hours, CEUFast only charges $39 annually for unlimited access to their peer-reviewed courses. This is already a cheap alternative if you are a US-registered nurse looking for a quick and easy provider of CPD units.
The contents of this online platform are written by expert nurses in their respective fields, ensuring accurate and up-to-date nursing topics.
This CPD webinar tackles public health and prevention, and the roles nurses can undertake in public health efforts. This webinar is made possible by the Royal College of Nursing Group, but you’ll have to subscribe or register to their RCNi website for access to their clinical content and continuous professional development courses.
RCNi also has plenty of free modules and journals discussing various healthcare points, ranging from Cancer Nursing to Emergency Care. These subject areas can help UK-registered nurses pursue their professional development.
This online learning discusses the importance of reporting adverse events, what to report, and how it is reported. It also explains what happens once an adverse event is reported and how it can be used to improve patient safety. The module has been developed through resources provided by the Therapeutic Goods Administration of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.
As with other organizations, they also have a comprehensive selection of free CPD modules that are readily available on their website. If you are a nurse registered in Australia looking for e-learning for continuous professional development, this one might suit you.
HealthEdForNurses is an organization based in Sydney, Australia, that provides healthcare content for registered nurses and midwives. The lectures are delivered by top-notch experts and are guaranteed to be evidence-based. This CPD course by Maria Said AM touches crucial information about anaphylaxis, a possibly fatal condition resulting from a severe allergic reaction. This also provides a much deeper insight into identifying signs that are consistent with anaphylaxis, its emergency management, and the responsibilities of nurses both in the hospital and the community.
https://cpd.healthedfornurses.com.au/courses/anaphylaxis-what-nurses-need-to-know
Even though most of the courses on this website require a 6-month or 12-month subscription for full access, they still offer free short courses for CPD that cover diverse nursing aspects. You can browse through their website for a full catalog of their courses.
The Philippine Nurses’ Association (PNA) in the Philippines was founded in 1922 as the “Filipino Nurses Association” in a meeting spearheaded by Anastacia Giron Tupaz and now has more than 300,000 members. This professional association is affiliated with international nursing groups, such as the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization.
While PNA usually offers its CPD courses for a fee, they occasionally conduct free ones. Their courses are also cheaper for registered members. You’ll just have to visit their website or their Facebook page to keep yourself updated on any upcoming free CPD lectures.
The Child Protection Network Foundation in the Philippines is providing a PRC-accredited online training with 3 CPD points entitled “Online Training on 4Rs of Women and Child Protection” for persons involved in dealing with children and women suspected of being abused, including nurses. This course explores the four R’s of women and children protection: Recognizing, Reporting, Recording, and Referring.
Child Protection Network Foundation is a non-government organization whose work centers on increasing the accessibility of services for abused children in the Philippines. They also have other free CPD modules on the same topic on their website that you might be interested in. If you are a Philippine-registered nurse specializing in such areas, this is a good choice.
Medscape.org is another widely recognized provider of continuing education for health practitioners in the US. One of their free CPD courses is the “Classical to Malignant Hematology: Overcoming Challenges That Nurses/NPs Face in the Clinic” with 1.25 contact hours accredited by the ANCC. This gives you an opportunity to learn more about paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and the challenges in caring for these patients.
Medscape.org’s authors and lecturers come from various parts of the world, keeping you up to date with the latest news and trends in healthcare worldwide. The courses on this platform also tackle a lot of specialties, from cardiology to general Surgery, and are applicable to practitioners outside the United States. To avail of their free continuous education modules and track of your activities, you will need to register on their website.
Final Words
No matter which country you are in, you will likely be required to complete a minimum number of CPD hours. Nurses need to maintain, improve, and broaden their knowledge, expertise, and competence through an ongoing process of CPD to continue delivering a safe nursing practice. While CPD can seem cumbersome, it doesn’t have to be that way. With many CPD resources available, it is now easier than ever to find CPD to suit your needs.
If you have any CPD resources that you would like to recommend, please let us know, and we will check them out!
CAN I STILL USED THESE FREE CPD COURSES IN RENEWING MY PRC LICENSE FOR FILIPINO NURSES?
I,M INTERRESTED IN COMMUNITY BASED OPAT CPD MODULE FOR NURSES. DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMOING COURSES?
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Thank you for sharing your updates to help nurses for free CPD resources.
Thank you for sharing your updates to help nurses for free CPD resources.