AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTINUING EDUCATION NEEDS OF NURSES IN NURSING HOMES IN NORTH CAROLINA.
Contributors: North Carolina State University.
Published: 1983
Number of pages: 147
Subjects: Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: A major purpose of this study was to identify the priorities in continuing education for nurses in nursing homes. The second purpose of the study was to determine the degree of agreement in the ranking of continuing education needs and such factors as age, educational preparation, experience, position, shift worked, and size of the nursing home.

The methodology employed was the use of a survey sent in the fall of 1982 to LPNs and RNs employed in nursing homes in North Carolina. A questionnaire was designed and sent to all of the nurses in thirty randomly selected nursing homes in North Carolina. From the twenty-five nursing homes that responded, 271 questionnaires were considered usable. They were analyzed statistically using Kendall's Tau B.

An important finding was that 80 percent of the fifty learning needs were perceived to be moderate to high priorities for learning for nursing home nurses. Four of the top ten learning needs fell within the managerial skills category, indicating that nurses in nursing homes need assistance in fulfilling those tasks related to their managerial roles. The nurses also reported needing information and skills related to motivation of staff. Drug therapy and drug interactions, reactions and toxicities was the learning need rated highest by all respondents. There was a high priority for the learning needs related to the assessment of mental status and techniques to manage patients' behavioral problems.

Lack of agreement in priorities for learning was found when nurses were controlled by all of the independent variables except for years of experience as a nurse. It appears that years of experience does not significantly alter priorities for learning, as the more experienced nurses prioritized their needs in similar ways as the less experienced ones.

Continuing education programs should be made available to nurses in nursing homes to address their identified learning needs. Future research endeavors could include comparative studies of other groups such as nursing home administrators, patients and families to determine if their perceptions of the nurses' learning needs are similar to those of the nurses themselves.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-11, Section: A, page: 3261.

Thesis (ED.D.)--NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1983.

School code: 0155.