“Would you look at what I just discovered”, my coworker exclaimed. “ONS is offering a free trial of continuing education credits (CE) matching the Individual Learning Needs Assessment (ILNA) program requirements.” This was a welcome discovery given the challenges she'd faced when working toward renewal of her OCN. Here is her story.
When she first learned about the ILNA recertification method, she was excited because it required less CE’s than in previous years. She also liked the idea that the CE’s she could earn would be in areas where the ILNA identified that she could enhance her learning. She told me the three biggest challenges she experienced when using ILNA were:
- Finding affordable CE opportunities.
- Matching CE opportunities with the categories where she needed CE’s.
- Reviewing the objectives of each CE opportunity to determine how many ILNA points it was worth in the ILNA categories that she needed.
She was more than excited when she stumbled upon the inPractice resource when searching ONS for CE opportunities. She told me, “inPractice is a great resource for obtaining CE’s especially because it has the CE opportunities available listed under each ILNA category. This way, you’re not spending so much time trying to figure out where each CE opportunity fits. Also, until August 1 it’s a free resource. After the free trial, you have the opportunity to join for a low yearly price.”
I knew I needed to see this for myself, so I logged on and found a wonderland of oncology knowledge. Some of the key features listed on the website are as follows.
- Practice-oriented, evidence-based, expert-authored, peer-reviewed content
- Bulleted topic summaries paired with in-depth recommendations
- Decision support tools for complex patient scenarios
- Clear practice guideline summaries
- ONS's inPractice Oncology Nursing includes individual activities worth at least 1 ANCC contact hour each
ONS's inPractice resource must be experienced firsthand to be fully appreciated. During the free-trial, oncology nurses can access both the Oncology Nursing and the Oncology resources. There's also a phone app for android and iphone.
My colleague’s advice to nurses working on certification renewal: “Start early! As soon as you can complete the ILNA assessment, do it! Most importantly, start searching for and working on CE’s immediately after your assessment. It’s a great idea when attending a conference or CE opportunity to keep the objectives along with you CE certificate so you can figure out which category it truly fits.”