Continuing education in nursing

CONTINUING
EDUCATION IN
NURSING
By-
Amit Newton
Era University

Introduction
 Continuing education provides information
and skills of current issues, prepare for
discussions and help to develop problem
solving skills.
 Continuing nursing education programme
should be developed by nurses and
conducted within nursing or in general
education system in cooperation with the

Definition
 Continuing nursing education is planned
educational activities intended to build
upon the educational and experimental
bases of the professional nurse for the
enhancement of practice, education,
administration, and research or theory
development to the end of improving the
health of the public.
American Nursing
Association

Concept
 The term ‘continuing education’ implies that
education is a life- long process.
 Another important aspect is that it does not
take place in a classroom or in an institutional
or formal way alone.
 Continuing education is a planned activity
directed towards meeting the learning needs
of the nurse following basic nursing education.

Philosophy of Continuing
Education
It encompasses
various aspects of life

Features of Continuing
Nursing Education
 Unified approach
Relationship with other system
Comprehensiveness
Accessibility for all health
professional
Integration with the management
process

Contd….
 Analysis of needs as a basis for
learning continuity
 Internally coordinated
 Relevance in planning
 Credibility and economics
 Appropriateness in
implementation

Characteristics of
Continuing Nursing
Education

Program
content The content of program consist of concepts,
principles, research findings or theories related
to nursing.
 In addition to content that ultimately improves
patient care; the content of continuing program
may also afford nurses the more general
benefits of improved professional development
as well as career advancement.

Preparation of
Content
 The content may be developed on the basis of:

Duration of
Program
 The duration of continuing
education offering is usually
related to the scope of content
covered and the format used to
present the learning experience.

Program Format
Workshop
Seminar
Self-study

Methods of delivery
 It can include traditional types of classroom
lectures and laboratories.
 Distance learning, which not only includes
independent study, but which can include
videotaped material, broadcast programming
etc.
 A combination of traditional, distance may be
used for a particular continuing education
courses.

Functions of Continuing
Nursing Education
 To meet the health needs and
public expectations.
 To develop practicing abilities of
the nurse.
 Recruitment function
 Recognize gaps in their
knowledge.

Contd…
 To improve communication
between the participants, faculty,
community and health sector..
 To maintain academic standards.
 To meet educational
requirements.
 To ensure quality of education

Principles of Continuing
Nursing Education
 Provision for school and nursing faculty involvement
in planning and teaching the continuing nursing
education courses tend to maintain high educational
standards for the program.
 An adequate staff is essential.
 Responsibility of the Director of Continuing Nursing
Education are:
 Determination of learning needs of the nurse
population
 Development and implementation of a program to
meet these needs

Contd….
 An advisory committee has to be appointed which
includes:
 Faculty members from a variety of areas of
nursing practice
 Directors of hospital nursing services
 Representatives from the state licensing authority,
health department and voluntary agencies
 Medical and allied health professionals
 Other agencies involved in the delivery of health
care in the community

Contd….
 The community may serve as a
liaison between the school of
nursing and the health community
and fulfill communication and
public relations function for the
university.
 Continuing nursing education
program may be decentralized or

Decentralization
Faculty of an
academic
department
initiate, plan,
implement &
evaluate its
own
programme of
continuing
education
Programming
within each
academic
department.
Depends on
public
interested
subject field.

Centralization
A separate
department or
extension
division is
responsible
for the CNE
programme of
the entire
university.
Financial
support is
either
university
grants or self-
supporting.
Faculty may
be of regular
basis or hired
on a contract
basis.

Elements of Continuing
Nursing Education
 The philosophies of continuing nursing
education recognizes the:
Learner
Nurse educator
or teacher

The Teacher
 Teacher’s task is to help the student how to
learn, how to approach situations with an
open, inquiring attitude, how to interpret what
he observes.
 The teacher must help the learner to discover
new approaches.
 Teacher should act as a role model, friend,
guide and philosopher.
 The teacher is a dispenser of wisdom and
knowledge.

Contd….
 The skillful teacher has to aware what is already
known and encouraging exploration in those
areas yet to be discovered.
 The continuing nursing educator has to play
multiple roles like:
 Guide and counselor to the learner
 An arranger and organizer of learning
experiences
 Motivator and an encourager of students
 Evaluator of programs
 Producing instructional materials
 Administrative role

Pre-requisites for Nurse
educator
1. Educational preparation
 Master’s degree in his/her area of nursing expertise
or with a doctorate in adult education
 Writing and organizing skills
 A continuing learner
 Depth of nursing knowledge and skills in its
application
 Interest in the subject, enthusiasm in teaching
 Skills in working with adult learners
 Adequate knowledge about teaching skills and
methods of teaching
 Broad base knowledge

Contd….
2. Competencies and other characteristics
 concern for people
 Flexibility
 Sensitive to group response
 Resourcefulness
 Determination
 Self-confidence
 Broader outlook
 Interest in self-development and in others
development

Contd…
3. The Faculty Administrator
 Teaching as part of responsibility
 Possess a high degree of administrative skill
 Assess and use the various abilities of
different faculty members
 Encourages supplemental education and
creativity
 Fosters the expansion of learner’s talent
 Make the faculty members to support and
abide the institutional policies by familiarizing
them

Contd….
4. Motivation of the learner
 To arouse the new area of interest among the
learner and involve them in planning, designing
the learning activities.
 Internal motivation i.e. the personal needs
desire to learn is more effective than external
incentives like certificates, grades and credits
etc.
 Expanded learning opportunities for nurses.
 For the motivated learner, difficulties
encountered in the process are seen as

Contd…
5. Involvement of learner in learning process
Efforts of
Learner
Motivation
of Learner
Learnin
g
process

Contd….
6. Organized learning experience
 Teacher are involved more directly in
program planning and in the conduct of
courses and deciding which educational
experiences and the activities are most
suitable for specific group of learners, in
certain aspects, teacher will include
learner’s views while organizing the
learning experiences.

Contd…..
7. The needs of society
 Quality of life and needs of society influences the
learning needs of the nurses.
 The critical issues facing society can be met by the
concerned, well informed citizens, who are willing
to devote thought, time and energy to their
solution.
 Citizens are vitally concerned and actively
involved in seeking solutions to the problems faced
by that society.
 Adequate preparation for participation approach is
essential for continuing nursing education.

Contd….
8. Universalization is necessary for
continuing nursing education.
9. The leisure
 The individual has to learn how to
use leisure time constructively,
participate in more educational
activities or specific skill
development.

Contd….
10. Liberal education
 Future nursing practice will place heavy demand
on all health professional’s efforts; human practice
requires practitioners with the insight,
understanding and attitudes which can be fulfilled
through liberal education.
11. Inter-professional continuing education
 Nurses have to accept and participates
interdisciplinary continuing education. It requires
input from all professional groups for whom it is
intended

Agencies of CNE
University
departments
Open
universities

Planning of Continuing
education in Nursing
A. Planning formula
It provides a framework
for program planning
 What has to be done?
 Why it is necessary?
 How it has to be done?
 Where it has to be
done?
 When it has to be
done?

Contd….
b. Establishing goals and objectives
 Goals must be significant and realistic
 Goals serve to stimulate and direct action and should be
reachable.
Objectives
i. To assist nurse in identifying and meeting current learning
needs
ii. To influence societal changes which have implications for
nursing
iii. To promote the development of leadership potential of the
nurse
iv. To disseminate new information from varied channels
v. To assist the nurse educator in increasing teaching
effectiveness

CONTD…..
c. Determining needs and priorities :
Assessment of needs will be done by
survey, through mailed questionnaires,
interview (formal and informal
discussions) with participants
(feedback) and checklist. After
assessing the needs prioritization of
needs has to be done.

Contd….
d. Assess the available resources for
establishing the program:
Continuing Education
facilitie
s
Finance
Facult
y

Contd…..
e. Plan the budget appropriate for the program
 Separate budget is required for each specific
activity.
 Budget requires ascertaining all the
anticipated costs of the offering.
 Sometimes budget for program will be
sanctioned by government, university grants or
fee collected from participants.

Cover Sheet
 Name of project
 Summary of project (optional, one
paragraph)
 Name of funding source to which
proposal is directed
 Name and address of institution
submitting project
 Name of principal initiator
 Date of submission

Proposal
Narrative1. Statement of objectives
O Description of the nature of problem
O Documentation of existence
problem
O Define target group
O State goals of project

Contd….
2. Procedure
O Description of sequences of
procedure
O Description of work done at each
stage
O Show how work will be organized
O Personnel handling each component
of work

Budget Narrative
Explain each budgetary
item
Criteria and data used to
make estimates

Appendices
 Statement outlining details of
institution requesting funds
 Vitae of personnel involved
 Supporting statements from
proposed clientele
 Supporting statements from
cooperating individuals or
agencies.

Organization of Continuing
Nursing Education
 Programming of professional courses in
nursing is a joint responsibility of a
Director of continuing Nursing Education
and a Dean of school of Nursing.
 The formal channels of communication
make possible the optional use of the
nursing faculty to explore the needs of
continuing nursing education, to set
priorities, to plan courses and to teach
them.

Organizational Chart
Showing Joint
Responsibilities

President
Dean of continuing
nursing education
Dean of school of
Nursing
Dean of other
department
Deans of other
departments
Director of continuing
nursing education
Advisory committee
continuing nursing
education
Board of regent

Organizational Chart Showing
Decentralized CNE

President
Other Deans Dean of school of nursing
Director of continuing
education
Director of basic nursing
program (diploma)
Director of graduate
program
Advisor committee
Board of regent

Evaluation of CNE
 Evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness
of the program or the progress in order to find out
to what extent pre-set goals have been achieved.
 Purposes of evaluation
 To identify the areas which require greater
attention
 To identify bottlenecks in various activities carried
out during the operation of the program
 To assess the applicability of training
 For quality control or qualitative improvement

Contd….
 What to evaluate
Evaluation should cover
 The professional growth and satisfaction of
participant
 The outcome of the course
 Effectiveness of faculty members
 Transfer of knowledge
 Effect on the system

Contd….
 Procedure for evaluation
 Pre-test and posttest
 Attitude tests
 Observation of skills/performance
evaluation
 Questionnaire
 Audio or video tapes

Contd…..
 Evaluation design
 Focus of evaluation- what do you want to find out?
Devise the instrument- collection of information
Organize the information- coding, organizing, storing
and retrieving
Analyze the information
Report the findings
Reassessing the goals
Updating, modifying and plan periodically based on
needs
Evaluate the design for validity, reliability, credibility,
timeliness and pervasiveness

Process of Continuing
Nursing Education
• Identify needs
• Set goals
• Plan & organize course
• Assess the available resources
• Prepare budget
• Implement plan of teaching

Contd…..
Evaluate the program
May restart the program

Researches in
CNE Nurses who continue
their education in the
field enjoy marked
professional
advantages.
 An increasing
number of studies
are evaluating the
effects of continuing
nurse education on

Setting research into
practice
 Setting research into practice is not as simple as
choosing an intervention and hoping for best.
 Administrative or financial policies may exist within
organizations that act as disincentives to improving
the practice of individuals.
 Interventions should ideally be tailored to an
individual’s stage of change.
 For example, health professionals might already be
aware of the need for cervical screening and may not
require an educational intervention, but they may
need a prompt on the patient’s chart. If, however,
practitioners lack information, awareness or skills,
then strategies such as workshops that involve a high
degree of interaction might be effective

Planning for improving
Practices
 An initial needs assessment can be
accomplished
 The next step is to choose a learning
activity.
 Reading materials can be useful if they
are evidence-based.
Although short “courses” are popular,
practice is likely to improve if lectures are
minimized and a high level of reflection and
interaction is encouraged.

Bibliography
 Neeraja KP. Textbook of Nursing Education. First
edition: 2011. Jaypee brothers. pp 337-349
 Nima bhaskar. Textbook of nursing education.
First edition: 2013. EMMESS Medical publisher.
Pp 320-330
 Sudha R. Nursing Education Principles and
Concepts. First edition: 2003. Jaypee brothers .pp
219-223
 Internet sources
 www.continuingeducation.com
 www. Nursingworld.org/ce

Continuing education in nursing

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