Free PT CEUs: How to Earn Them (and Are There Enough Out There?)

It feels like everything is expensive these days, including continuing education. While some employers provide reimbursement or a subscription to an online platform, many of us are on our own. Paid for or not, continuing education has to be done in order for you to renew your license and be able to practice—and earn your income!

While it is possible to earn free CEUs, it will be hard to fulfill your total physical therapy CEU requirements solely through free courses. Most states require between 20 and 40 continuing education hours per 1-2 year renewal cycle. I spent hours searching to see if I could find enough to meet these totals. Spoiler alert: I didn’t.

But here’s what I did find...

Platforms That Offer Free Online PT CEUs

Professional Organizations

APTA Learning Center: Even if you aren't a member, there are some free courses available. You’ll need to create a login to access courses. You may not be able search for “free” courses but you can search by price range and use $5 for the max price (you will only see this search option when logged in).

Healthcare Regulatory Research Institute: Offers the Healthy Practice Resource modules; each module is worth one CEU. At the time of this post the following states have promoted these modules: Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and South Dakota. Each state has a different limit on how many CEUs you can earn through these modules; always verify specifics with your state.

Continuing Education Providers

This may be a good way to trial a company before you subscribe, or catch up on that one class you need to complete on a mandatory topic like ethics or cultural competency.

• PhysicalTherapy.com: Offers 500+ courses; often allows one free course with a promo code.

• Wild Iris Medical Education: May offer free specialized courses like sexual harassment training or stroke management. (None at the time of this writing but there have been in the past.)

• Flex Therapist CEUs: Offers one free course (currently a pain course).

Product Companies

• Saebo Academy: Offers free neurological rehabilitation courses (AOTA-approved, check with your state for PT approval).

• RunDNA: Offers free, accredited physical therapy CEU courses focusing on running and walking gait analysis; one course on running and one on walking.

• HawkGrips: Provides specialized education in instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) and offers a few free courses.

• Interactive Metronome: Offers several free introductory courses on their treatment tool to improve neurotiming, rhythmicity, and synchronization. CEUs are approved by ASHA and AOTA, but for PT you can always ask if your state will accept them or use your judgement if your state doesn’t require pre-approval.

Non-Traditional Ways to Earn Free CEUs

When continuing education was first introduced, courses were really the only way to earn PT CEUs, Over time, many state physical therapy boards started realizing that competence could be demonstrated by participating in alternative activities as well.

Many of these non traditional free ways to earn CEUs are things you may already be doing. There are generally limits on how many CEUs you can earn this way and of course, each state has a different maximum number of CEUs allowed. It’s always best to check your state’s rules and regulations to find specifics, but here are some ideas to look into.

• Journal Clubs: If you are already reading journal articles to stay up to date with current evidence based research, grab a few friends or co-workers and make it a club. If you don’t receive any journals yourself by subscribing to them or through an APTA membership, check with your employer to see if they do. Read more about earning free CEUs by forming journal clubs on our blog.

• Board and Professional Organization Activities: Attending state board meetings or APTA meetings is another relatively easy way to earn free PT CEUs. If you’d like to take it a step further and participate on a board or a committee, you may be able to earn a few more. Our blog has a list of states that allow you to earn free PT CEUs for participating in these activities.

• Mentorship: Are you a mentor for a clinical fellowship or residency program? Or maybe you just naturally like to help new grads or co-workers. Formalize what you are already doing and earn free CEUs in some states. You can find a list of states that allow continuing education credit for mentoring in our blog post.

• Clinical Instruction: You may already be giving back to the profession by doing this, but your state may give back to you in the form of CEUs. Find out if your state allows CEU credit by starting with our Physical Therapy CEU requirements page. Select your state and click the link in the 'More Details' section to learn if your state offers CEUs for being a clinical instructor.

The Allure and the Cost of Free CEUs

Well the allure seems obvious, they are free! But there can be a cost. Taking the time to track down enough courses to fulfill all of your requirements for free just might not be worth it.

You may find it's actually more cost effective to use a subscription model after all.

Two of my favorites are Medbridge and PhysicalTherapy.com. I’ve paid for them both throughout my many years of working as a physical therapist. And now, full disclosure, they pay me a small commission and give you a better deal if you use these links. (Thanks for your support! 😊)

How Do I Keep Track of All of These CEUs?

Whether you decide to cobble together as many freebies as you can, or you just end up using them to supplement your subscription, you’ll want to be sure you keep track of everything you are doing to earn your CEUs.

Even if you pay for an unlimited CEU subscription, you may not want to spend your free time taking more courses than you need because you forgot to count your CI hours.

This is where CEU Keeper comes in! We make it easy to log all of your continuing education, from any platform or activity, as well as store the documentation you’ll need for proof of completion at renewal time or in the event of an audit.

You can access it from any device, at any time and won’t have to worry if you change jobs, didn’t save an email or don’t subscribe to a certain platform anymore. Your stuff is safe and sound, all in one place.

Start your CEU Keeper free trial today!