Do Nurses Need Continuing Education?
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| Nursing Education |
Technical and scientific advances in medicine, and increasing consumer demand for high quality health care, increase the need for continued learning by nurses. These advances are changing medical and nursing science so rapidly that nurses who graduated from nursing school five years ago are finding that some of their nursing education is already obsolete. New graduates can no longer feel confident because their nursing science and nursing theory courses are fresh in their memories. After graduation, they quickly discover they have tremendous amounts to learn in their first years out of school.
Today`s nurses, like today`s phisicians, must contend with the information explosion. One way they are doing this is by becoming specialists in narrower fields of practice. Nursing specialization helps provide the overwhelming amount of information nurses need to know, but it does not extinguish the need for continued learning. The rapidity of advancement in medical science, even in spesialized areas, must also be dealt with. This rapidity can be dealt with by nurses taking an active responsible role in their own continued growth and learning. Many nurses find this challenge exciting and seek out continuing education courses in their speciality area. These nurses are fulfilling the idea of continuing education as many of nursing`s founders envisioned it.
Today`s nurses, like today`s phisicians, must contend with the information explosion. One way they are doing this is by becoming specialists in narrower fields of practice. Nursing specialization helps provide the overwhelming amount of information nurses need to know, but it does not extinguish the need for continued learning. The rapidity of advancement in medical science, even in spesialized areas, must also be dealt with. This rapidity can be dealt with by nurses taking an active responsible role in their own continued growth and learning. Many nurses find this challenge exciting and seek out continuing education courses in their speciality area. These nurses are fulfilling the idea of continuing education as many of nursing`s founders envisioned it.
References :
Cooper SS and Hornback MS : Continuing nursing education, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1973.
O`Conner AB : Nursing staff development and continuing education, Canada, Little, Brown and Co, 1986.
Grace L. Deloughery : Issues and Trends in Nursing, St. Louis Missouri, Mosby Year Book, 1991.
