SEMINAR

ON
continuing education

SUBMITTED TO : SUBMITTED BY :
MRS. STELLA GIBIE MANDEEP KAUR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR M.Sc (Nursing) 1st year

SUBMITTED ON :
29th MARCH, 2011
 MASTER PLAN
NAME MANDEEP KAUR
EVALUATOR'S NAME MRS. STELLA GIBIE
SUBJECT NURSING EDUCATION
CLASS M.Sc. NURSING(1st YEAR)
TOPIC CONTINUING EDUCATION
DATE 29th MARCH, 2011
TIME 2:00PM to 3:00 PM
COLLEGE G.H.G. COLLEGE OF NURSING,
RAIKOT.

S.NO CONTENT
1 INTRODUCTION
2 TERMINOLOGY
*Continuing Education: Education programme in order to
update one's competences.

*Connecticut Board of Examiners :A small work group to

discuss the issues.

*Praxis : Action with reflection or learning by doing.

*Credentialing:Process of establishing the qualifications of
 licensed professionals.

3 DEFINITIONS
4 IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUING
EDUCATION IN NURSING
5 SCOPE OF PRACTICE
6 TWELVE PRINCIPLES FOR
EFFECTIVE ADULT LEARNING
7 LEARNING-NEEDS ASSESSMENT
8 PRIORITIES
9 RESOURCES
10 MAR-APR 2011 FOR PLANNING
CONTINUING NURSING EDUCATION
PROGRAMS

11 EVALUATE CONTINUING
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
12 RESEARCH ON CONTINUING
NURSING EDUCATION
13 SUMMARY
14 CONCLUSION
15 NET REFERENCE
Introduction:
Continuing education refers to any type of post-secondary education, used to either obtain
additional certifications, or as credits required to maintain a license. Almost anybody can take
continuing education credits for personal or professional enrichment; fitness trainers, nurses, and
safety instructors are examples of professionals who fall into the second category. Continuing
education is aimed exclusively to adults who already possess a college or university degree.
Continuing education can take the form of workshops, seminars, home-study or online courses,
conferences, or hands-on training. There is no specific format or length for a continuing
education program: some may take a weekend, while others can span weeks or even months. In
the case of continuing education for personal advancement only, students usually don't receive
college credits, as the courses are not considered part of the standard educational system. A
common characteristic to all continuing education programs is a registration process. Attending a
conference or cultural event that is open to the general public does not give attendants any type
of education credits, and cannot be considered formal training.

Definitions of continuing education:

 A program of instruction designed primarily for adult students who participate part-time

 Education that is in addition to the educational requirements for entry into a profession.
Continuing education helps health care professionals become aware of new developments
in their field.

 A lifelong learning process which builds on and modifies previously acquired knowledge,
skills and attitudes of the individual.

Continuing Nursing Education:

Continuing Education for Nurses are for nurses who wish to pursue further knowledge in the
medical field. It is not required, but taking this additional course will greatly improve your
knowledge, as well as your employability.

Importance of Continuing Education in Nursing:

Continuing education is also necessary for nurses who want to work as an advanced or
specialized nurse.

 Changing Technology:
Although nursing programs are designed to teach new nurses the very latest in health
care technology, there are new products coming out each year that the nurses need to
understand. For example, many medical facilities are in the process of switching to
 electronic health records. Nurses who have been in the field more than a few years
may require training to learn how to use the new digital patient files and health care
software.

 Career Advancement:
The first stage in nursing is a licensed practical nurse (LPN). Training to become an
LPN generally takes 12 months. To move past that and become a registered nurse
(RN), nurses are required to take another two to four years of schooling. If an RN
wants to continue his education, there are both master's and Ph.D. nursing degrees
available. Nurses can also pursue continuing education in specialties such as pediatric
or oncological nursing.

 Special Situations:
Nurses must continually educate themselves to keep up to date on arising situations in
health care. As with the case of the H1N1 flu virus, sometimes there is a need for
nurses to receive immediate additional training for a particular condition or medical
development. Nurses must be prepared to implement changes in patient care as soon
as changes become necessary.

 State Requirements:
Almost all nurses are required by state laws to meet a continuing education
requirement. In Michigan, for example, nurses need 25 hours of continuing education
from conferences, courses or seminars within two years of renewing their nursing
licenses. Without taking the necessary courses, nurses cannot continue to work with
patients. This ensures that medical patients get the very best care possible from nurses
who are up to date on their training.

 Consequences of Not Continuing Education:

If a nurse does not participate in continuing education opportunities, she will not be
able to renew her license to practice medicine. On a larger scale, if continuing
education were not mandatory for nursing, the quality of care the nursing community
provided would diminish drastically. Each nurse would only have the formal
education he received before graduation, whether that was 10 months or 10 years
before. Care would be inconsistent and dangerous mistakes could easily become
commonplace through lack of understanding. The need for continuing education
reflects the constantly developing nature of the nursing field.

Scope of practice:
The goal of this program is to reinforce the registered nurse's knowledge of scope of practice and
to provide a model for decision making.
Based on this information, nurses will be able to:
* Discuss their responsibility in defining and determining their individual scope of practice
* Increase their knowledge of the Nurse Practice Act
* Identify the behaviors that can lead to disciplinary action
* Describe the function of the Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing
* Define the steps in the Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing Competency /Scope of
Practice Decision-Making Model

 The Scope of Nursing Practice

Nursing, like other professions, is accountable for ensuring that its members act in the public
interest and provide the unique service that has been designated to them by society. This process
is called professional regulation. The profession of nursing regulates itself through defining
practice, establishing an educational system, providing research to further develop the practice
base and developing the standards of practice and a code of ethics.

 Nurse Practice Act

The Nurse Practice Act is designed to protect the public from incompetent nursing practice, not
to protect nurses from discriminatory or questionable employment practices. Each nurse is
responsible and accountable for making decisions and practicing in accordance with that
individual's educational background and experience in nursing.

 Legal Regulation /Disciplinary action

Nursing practice in Connecticut is regulated by Connecticut statutes .The professional nurse is
responsible and accountable for making decisions that are based upon the individual's
educational preparation and experience in nursing.
Behaviors and activities of the nurse relating to the scope of practice that could lead to
disciplinary action are:
* Performing acts beyond the authorized scope of practice for the level of nursing for which the
individual is licensed.
* Assuming duties and responsibilities within the scope of nursing practice without adequate
preparation or when competency has not been maintained.
* Failing to take appropriate action or to follow policies and procedures in the practice situation
designed to safeguard the patient.
* Assigning or delegating unqualified persons to perform functions of licensed nurses contrary to
the Nurse Practice Act or to the detriment of patient safety.

 Function of the Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing

As a registered nurse, the nurse manager is responsible and accountable, professionally and
legally, for determining his/her professional scope of practice. Further, the nurse manger makes
decisions regarding the roles and responsibilities for nurses within the institution or agency in
order to provide quality care.
The nurse executive, in a changing and complex health delivery system, is knowledgeable
regarding changes in rules and regulations, accreditation standards and standards of care and
practice, in addition to evaluation of the boundaries specified in the Nurse Practice Act. The
nurse executive and/or the nurse manager facilitate changes to assure quality patient care
outcomes and develop mechanisms that will promote the same.

 Steps in the Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing Competency

The nurse is constantly involved in the decision-- making and problem-solving process, whether
as a staff nurse or a manager, regardless of the practice setting. Although the process is the same,
each views the situation from a different perspective. Basic to this process, though, are the
following steps:
1. CLARIFY: What is the problem or need? Who are the people involved in the decision? What is
the decision to be made and where (what setting or organization) will it take place?
Why is the question being raised now? Has it been discussed previously?
2. ASSESS: What are your resources? What are your strengths? What skills and knowledge are
required? What or who is available to assist you?
3. IDENTIFY OPTIONS: What are possible solutions? What are the characteristics of an ideal
solution? Is it feasible? What are the risks? What are the costs? Are they feasible? What are the
implications of your decision? How serious are the consequences?
4. POINT OF DECISION: What is the best decision? When should it be done? By whom? What
are the implications or consequences of your decision? How will you judge the effectiveness of
your decision?

Twelve Principles for Effective Adult Learning:

The approach to adult learning based on these principles holds that adults have enough life
experience to be in dialogue with any teacher about any subject and will learn new knowledge,
attitudes, or skills best in relation to that life experience .
Twelve principles and practices are ways to begin, maintain, and nurture the dialogue:
• Needs assessment: participation of the learners in naming what is to be learned.
• Safety in the environment and the process. We create a context for learning. That context can be
made safe.
• Sound relationships between teacher and learner and among learners
• Sequence of content and reinforcement.
• Praxis: action with reflection or learning by doing.
• Respect for learners as decision makers.
• Ideas, feelings, and actions: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects of learning.
• Immediacy of the learning.
• Clear roles and role development.
• Teamwork and use of small groups.
• Engagement of the learners in what they are learning.
• Accountability: how do they know they know?

Learning-needs assessment:
Identifying your learning needs for your continuing professional
development:
Stage 1. Making your overall learning plan
Here you need to be completely honest with yourself:

•identify your weaknesses in knowledge, skills or attitudes

•specify topics for learning as a result of changes in your role, responsibilities or organisation

•link into the learning needs of others in your practice

•tie-in with the service development priorities of your practice, the primary care trust (PCT)
or the NHS as a whole

•describe how you identified your learning needs

•prioritise and set your learning needs and associated goals

•justify your selection of learning goals

•describe how you will achieve your goals and over what time period

•describe how you will evaluate your learning outcomes.

Stage 2. Using a range of methods to identify your learning needs

•Where are you now?

•What are your roles and responsibilities?

 •What do you need to know?

•What knowledge, skills and attitudes do you need?

Stage 3. Creating your goal
Think of it as a car journey from A to B. You need to identify B before you start your journey to
decide on the best route. Before you leave A, you should plan how you are going to get to B,
otherwise you are likely to get lost, side-tracked or go round in circles and potentially never
arrive at B. Look back at your aspirations that you set in the previous stage. Each of these is a
target destination. You now have to decide the route there. Changing performance and improving
quality can be difficult and education is the key to this. Initial enthusiasms can soon become
stuck in the daily chores of work. Computer-operated reminders or even notes in diaries are
helpful to keep you on track.
Stage 4. Setting priorities for what and how you learn
Some of the needs in your learning plan will be appropriate for the present circumstances, some
will be too costly and others too time-consuming. Go through again and select those that have
clear aims and objectives, and are achievable within the time and money constraints that you
have upon you. Then rank them in the order of priority. You need to set a time span for this
activity.

Priorities:
Before we get specifically into the National Agricultural Advisory Services and Functional Adult
Literacy Programme investment priorities, let us reflect on what informs choices for investment
in adult education generally. From the macro to the lowest levels of service delivery decision
makers are often raising the following queries; and their answers greatly affect the investment
choices:

•Who are we spending the money on, for what and why?

•Is it the rural or urban poor, non-literates, semi-literates or economically active poor that
should be the target?

•Is spending on adult education for socio-cultural and political empowerment greater than the
immediate economic development for the individual's own benefit and that of his/her
community?

•Is it investment to make adults "better" citizens with the required knowledge, skills and
attitudes to be loyal to their government?

•Is it investment to make adults versatile in the labour market or further ground them in
"improved subsistence agricultural practices"?

•Is the education of adults anything beyond telling them what they must know; does it mean
helping them unleash their potential to learn and act with dignity and autonomy?
 •Is the investment to increase enrollment or improve quality?
Many times the choices are driven by the inclination to think of adult education in terms of its
importance to support economic activities of individuals. I have often heard public decision
makers demanding that adult education programmes "talk economics".

Resources:
•Conferences and workshops

•Online classes

•Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 presentations

•Self-learning computer modules

•At-home study programs

•DVDs and videotapes

•Formal coursework

•In-service demonstrations by drug-company and equipment representatives

Mar-Apr 2011 For Planning Continuing Nursing

Education Programs:
This teleconference series is produced by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Institute
for Credentialing Innovation.

The curriculum will focus on the implementation of CE guidelines, writing measurable objectives, meeting
your organization’s needs, and validating the CE needs of your target audience. Participants will also
learn more about opportunities and limitations of garnering commercial support.

Target Audience

•Nurse Planners for CE programs

•Administrators for nursing CE programs

•New members of CE and education departments

•Nurse educators considering accreditation in continuing education

•Graduate students in Nursing Education

Program Objectives for teleconference series:

•Use a process to plan effective continuing nursing education

 •Discuss models and strategies to evaluate continuing nursing education

•Document continuing nursing education to be in compliance with accreditation criteria

A maximum of 7.5 contact hours may be earned by learners who successfully complete this
continuing nursing activity.

Evaluate Continuing Education Programs:

Adults, who are going back to school and want to take full advantage of the learning new
information for career advancement or changing careers, must be sure they are taking courses
which meet employers’ expectations. Adults who enroll in continuing education want to move
beyond the entry level positions they may be in or want to avoid when changing careers.

Evaluating Continuing Education Assessment Practices

Evaluating an institution’s total program objectives is high on the agenda for anyone considering
enrolling in a program. The following are assessment attributes which should be part of any
continuing education program:

•Teamwork – does the program emphasize group efforts and projects?

•Ethical Judgment – does the program focus on the ability to choose right from wrong in
critical situations?

•Intercultural Skills – does the program focus on cross cultural teaching and learning?

•Quantitative Reasoning – does the program require analysis of data to determine outcomes?

•Communication – does the program require strong oral communication within all courses?

•Adaptability – does the program include problem solving situations and projects?

•Critical thinking – does the program include courses and projects which require research
and evidence of thought beyond basic course work?

•Writing – does the program have a strong emphasis on writing in all courses and projects?

•Self Starter – does the program place a value on being proactive in courses and projects?

•Global Knowledge – does the program emphasize the inclusion of views and understanding
beyond the confines of the program?

Research on Continuing Nursing Education:

Nurses who continue their education in the field enjoy marked professional advantages. Usually,
continuing nursing education means obtaining certification in certain nursing specialties.
Certification validates nurses' expertise and enables them to provide patients with more
comprehensive care.

 Benefits
The American Nurses Credentialing Center indicates that nurses who continue their
education to gain board certification have met high professional standards. As a
result, their competency in the field is evident to a wide variety of potential medical
employers. They command the highest salaries and rarely have trouble finding work.

 Effects
According to the "Journal of Nursing Education," nurses who diversify their
professional skills contribute directly to improved patient safety. Continuing nursing
education enables nurses to develop strong expertise levels for the benefit of patients.

 Considerations
The American Nurses Credentialing Center recommends that nurses renew their
certifications every five years. Typically, nurses are notified at least six months in
advance of their certification's expiration so plans to renew can be made in a timely
manner.

 Types
Continuing nursing education to renew licensure offers a number of specialty courses
designed to help nurses carve out a niche in the field. Course types can include acute
pain management, forensic evidence collection or courses associated with digestive or
psychological disorders.

SUMMARY:
There are a lot of people who are nurses that want to use nursing continuing education to help
them advance in their career. Nursing is one of the more noble professions that you can ever do.
Many people take great satisfaction in caring for and helping people get back to good health. In
order to become a nurse you will need to pass certifying exams before you can even get the
necessary licenses or registrations that will enable you to be a full-fledged nurse. Nursing
continuing education can help you to make your career more satisfying and successful for you.
Nursing continuing education is one of the best things that will help you advance your career.

CONCLUSION:
Nursing these days has also become more lucrative. It does however require a lot of money in
 order for someone to become a nurse.Nursing is a scientifically rigorous discipline, which
requires the updated information on a regular basis to ensure best possible care is provided to
patients. Nurses are required to engage in a set amount of training to maintain their registration
in almost all states. The technological advancements has made the job of a nurse to evolve
continuously. It is the responsibility of every nurse to remain updated with the ongoing changes
as they will affect her patients.

Net Reference:
http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/138/3/387
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/adults
-2.htm

http://adulted.about.com/od/teachers/a/teachingadults.htm

http://www.wipp.nhs.uk/tools_gpn/toolu4_learning_needs_assessment.php

http://www.apa.org/ed/sponsor/committee/index.aspx

http://www.dvv-international.de/index.php?article_id=172&clang=1

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7550022_research-continuing-nursing-education.html
www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/Professions/HPQAglossary2.htm
www.odl.state.ok.us/servlibs/certprog/progdef.htm