Many people attempt to use the terms interchangeably. It is true that each of these terms is referring to continuing education in some way; however they all mean something slightly different. The definitions are listed below:
CE - This is the basic abbreviation for the term continuing education. It is not referring to any units of time or measurement, rather it is simply classifying the type of material concerned.
CEU - This is the abbreviation for continuing education unit and is perhaps the most misunderstood item in online education. This term is popular in college and trade school continuing education and refers to 10 hours of related material. It is fairly common to see a description such as, "This course is worth 2 CEUs". Now, this description would literally mean that the course is worth 20 contact hours, but it is often used incorrectly to describe a 2 hour course. The majority of state nursing boards are working to eliminate the usage of CEU in order to prevent potential misunderstandings. As a good rule of thumb - be sure that any provider you interact with has outlined the courses in the amount of hours (preferably contact hours) and that you know exactly what you will be taking
Brief Note On Contact Hours - contact hours can be defined as 60 minutes (in some states they can be defined as 50 minutes - but that is a different discussion altogether) of learning material. Normally, when referring to the length of a continuing education course the amount of hours are referred to as contact hours. For example: “This course is worth 1.5 contact hours”.
CNE - This is an abbreviation for Continuing Nursing Education and refers to materials that are specific for nurses. It is a general term and is not referring to a specific amount of hours or some other form of measurement. Providers should ideally identify their courses as CNE when theory are providing education designed for nurses. This can help avoid confusion between other medical professionals.
Each of the above listed terms have their own distinct definitions and uses. The online environment has created a wide range of available online continuing education options for health care providers and a working knowledge of these differing abbreviations can help an individual better search through the multitude of options.