Editorial


 
 

6

Editorial 
 

CONTINUING EDUCATION AND THE RNO JOURNAL 
 

Marietta Stanton 
 Editorial Board Member 

 
 

Over the past several years we have tried periodically to provide contact hours to 
all of our readers and constituents through the online RNO journal. This has primarily 
been accomplished through questions that can be completed after reading a selected 
article in the journal and then submitting those completed questions to RNO. All of the 
materials are available within the journal and can be completed electronically or 
faxed/mailed to RNO. After the questions are received, corrected and processed, a 
certificate of completion delineating contact hours is sent to the individual. This activity 
has had a very poor response from readers and after three attempts, it is time to reevaluate 
this practice and consider other options. This was supposed to generate revenue for RNO 
but without any respondents it has been a complete failure. Therefore, in the interest of 
attempting to not only increase revenue as well as provide educational opportunities, it is 
time to reassess needs. It may be content that is a problem. It also may be cost.  

As you may know I was mobilized in support of the Global War on Terrorism on 
March 21, 2004. I served as the Senior Case Manager for the Southeast Regional Medical 
Command and in that capacity I had quality oversight of case management activities of 
50 case managers at 8 different hospital in the region as well as 10-20 case managers at 
community health centers and mobilization stations. My specific role was to facilitate the 
transition of ill or wounded Reserve and National Guard soldiers through the military 
health care system. This system had traditionally handled and was staffed for active duty 
soldiers and was ill prepared for the additional patient workload. 

In addition to the hospitals and facilities being widely dispersed, the level of 
expertise in and among case managers varied a great deal. This prompted a great deal of 
oversight and education on my part. Because that situation is similar to that of RNO, I 
would like to explore some activities we incorporated and then examine these and others 
to increase our participation in CE by RNO members.  

 
• Programs offered through video teleconferences. One of the vehicles we used 

to provide CEUs in the military was a bimonthly or quarterly 
videoteleconference (VTC).  

• Online courses could be made available at the website. These can be 
developed by members and made available to other members for a fee.  

• Continue providing some sort of CEU activity through the journal.  
 
I can be reached at mstanton@bama.ua.edu, and I would appreciate you taking a few 
minutes to provide some ideas and feedback. 

 Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 2005
 

mailto:mstanton@bama.ua.edu