Design and implementation of effective delivery approaches for continuing nursing education

This paper describes the overall principles for designing continuing education courses for adult learners. A three year grant project enabled the University of Washington School of Nursing to design, implement and evaluate three delivery approaches for continuing nursing education in the state of Washington. These delivery approaches included: 1) a teacher "live" class; 2) a teleconference class; and 3) independent study packages for individuals or groups. The purpose of the project was to develop and compare the effectiveness of these three delivery methods for delivering continuing nursing education. Variables examined included demographic data, attendance, attrition, cognitive achievement, attitudes toward the instructional delivery method and course content, and learner satisfaction.