ATTITUDES OF WEST VIRGINIA NURSES TOWARD MANDATORY CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR RE-LICENSURE.
Contributors: West Virginia University.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 157
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Education.; Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of West Virginia nurses toward mandatory continuing education for relicensure. A second purpose was to determine the relationship between certain personal, educational, and professional characteristics of the respondents and their attitudes toward mandatory continuing education.

The sample for the study was composed of 1015 registered nurses residing in West Virginia. Nurses were selected randomly by zip code to achieve a geographically stratified sampling. Data collection was carried out by means of a mailed two-part questionnaire. The first part of the instrument elicited data regarding personal, educational and professional characteristics of the population. The second consisted of 20 items developed and tested by Dr. Carol Hutton to assess nurses' attitudes toward mandatory continuing education. An overall response rate of 51% was achieved. Of the 520 completed questionnaires, 507 were complete and useable.

Analyses of variance were employed to test the research questions and associated hypotheses. The Duncan multiple range test was used to evaluate significant findings. The basis for acceptance of each hypothesis was a level of significance of.05 or less.

Nineteen personal, professional, and educational variables were examined for their relationship to attitude toward mandatory continuing education for relicensure. Of these, nine variables were found to be significant. These were (1) highest level of education completed, (2) number of hours of inservice education attended during the past two years, (3) attendance of continuing education activities away from the workplace, (4) number of hours of continuing education attended away from the workplace, (5) national certification in a specialty area, (6) employment position, (7) practice area, (8) membership in professional associations, and (9) membership in West Virginia Nurses Association.

West Virginia nurses' attitudes toward mandatory continuing education for relicensure were favorable with 60.5% of respondents holding either favorable or strongly favorable attitudes. Only 7.2% held either unfavorable or strongly unfavorable attitudes toward mandatory continuing education. Study findings have implications for initiating mandatory continuing education in West virginia and for other states considering legislating continuing education for relicensure of nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: B, page: 5603.

Thesis (ED.D.)--WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, 1993.

School code: 0256.