McAllen, Texas (March 28,2017) — Two and a half years in the making, South Texas College will now be offering specialized Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) in the Rio Grande Valley.

Working in collaboration with STC’s Nursing and Allied Health (NAH) campus, the college is now approved for CEUs for CNE-specific training for nurses and nursing educators throughout the region.

“We are doing all we can within STC Continuing Education to develop programs for the community to take them here locally,” said Juan Carlos Aguirre, Dean of Continuing Education at South Texas College. “This is one of the most important components of our mission. It’s to develop programs here as opposed to having to travel out of the Valley to get those CNE units.”

Nurses require at least 10 Continuing Education credits per year while nursing educators require at least 20.

STC will begin offering two hour trainings next month. The college will conduct its first session focusing on “Nursing Leadership” on April 19 at the NAH campus at 1 p.m. Its next session, “Nursing Curriculum” will be held in May. Subsequent sessions will include “Elderly Care” in the fall followed by “Palliative Care”.

“Registered Nurses are required to do a certain number of CEU hours every year. Nurse educators are also required to have those hours be in the field they’re working in, which happens to be education,” said STC Vocational Nursing Instructor and training organizer, Karen Countryman. “The fact that we can provide those hours here to our own large faculty, and even open it up to UTRGV in Edinburg and Brownsville allows a local place for them to come and get the training that is important to them as educators.”

The cost is $40 per session. Those interested in training can contact Karen Countryman at (956) 872-3086 or email at kcountry@southtexascollege.edu