{"id":4191,"date":"2018-11-13T16:49:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T21:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2019-05-03T14:11:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T18:11:23","slug":"continuing-education-challenges-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/2018\/11\/13\/continuing-education-challenges-and-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuing Education Challenges and Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Hughes, DMD<\/h3>\n

\"Hannah

My work itself provided both the motivation to return to the classroom, and the topics to be prioritized. After residency, I relished my newfound freedom from the classroom, until gaps in my knowledge began to become apparent. Whether a coworker brought up a topic I needed to know more about, or a patient had a question that I could not answer, there arose a need to broaden my knowledge. I started to make a list of these incidents, and this list became an inventory of subjects to be addressed through CE.<\/p>\n

I next took on locating and choosing CE courses, and eventually discovered three sources for relevant CE. I began with an exhaustive search of local schools' websites to see if any offered CE in dentistry; many did. Outside academia, I found many town and state dental associations offered CE. Finally, one of my colleagues recommended looking at social media groups. I turned to Facebook, and was surprised by how many profession-specific groups there were. Even the less helpful groups were filled with other health professionals looking for advice, not only helping me find CE, but also helping me feel like a part of a broader medical community.<\/p>\n

Even after solving these problems, I still thought I should wait before spending more on education. Then, I remembered that during my third year of medical school, I had met a dentist who was four years out of school. He told me he had made a promise to spend 10% of his yearly income on CE while working. I admired his plan at the time, but only after beginning work did I realize the importance of his commitment to staying focused and bettering his education. I resolved to set goals and make plans for my CE. Since Connecticut's CE requirements are counted in hours for dentists and many professionals, I tracked and planned my CE in hours rather than dollars. Setting a goal for my CE, and visualizing this goal by tracking my hours on a spreadsheet, helped me think about CE productively rather than with fear for my finances.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still experimenting with CE to find what works for me. I still ask for advice from colleagues and check internet forums. With so many CE classes offered, finding effective ones still requires research. And, sometimes, I still need a break from the classroom for a few months. I just make sure to keep my goals in mind and to remember that my patients are counting on me!<\/p>\n

\n

To leave a response to this post, please email\u00a0Ellen Ravens-Seger<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hannah Hughes, DMD, narrates three challenges she faced associated with continuing education, or C.E., and how she overcame them (or at least manages them).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":771,"featured_media":4223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 17:10:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4191"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/connecticut-area-health-education-center-network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}