New Information

• As is the case in any field, new information is available in nursing every year as scientists perform research and health care professionals refine their practice. Taking a refresher course allows a registered nurse to attain new information about her profession, whether it be new medications, new theories on patient management or new information on diseases and treatments. Refresher courses allow nurses access to knowledge in a low-pressure setting with people who are just as eager to learn and with a teacher who can help explain the knowledge clearly.
  
  

New Technology

• Medical technology gets better every year, and a nurse who learned to use a certain instrument or machine in school may need to be updated on new technology as it becomes available to him. While nurses can pick up these new skills in the hospital, the best way to learn any important skills is in an environment where there is a teacher who is skilled in the procedure. Keeping the learning experience away from high-pressure, real-life medical situations allows a nurse to expand his skill set without worrying about a risk to patients or his career.
  
  

Community

• While there is, of course, a sense of community in a hospital, taking a refresher course can help remind a registered nurse of her place in the larger health care system. Often when taking a class, nurses will interact with nurses from other programs and schools of thought, which will broaden their horizons and help to enrich all of them with the experiences of their fellow nurses. Problems can be solved by someone with an outside opinion who can look at it from another direction.
  
  

Review

• When a nurse has been out of the field for awhile, he may want to review basic essential information--like body systems and assessment skills--before going back to work in a clinical setting. A refresher course allows him to reacquaint himself with the information that he would need to have at hand when he started back in a fast-paced, clinical setting.
  
  

Compete with New Graduates

• When employers are looking to hire nurses, they may go with those who have the most recent training, since they would be familiar with all current procedures and methods. Taking a refresher course would show potential employers that a registered nurse has a commitment to staying current in her field and that she has the skills to compete with nurses who are fresh out of school.