[Nurses' perceptions of inservice training in a private hospital]

A private hospital aims at quality health care delivery with a profit making motive. Inservice education to nursing staff therefore plays an important role--it should add value to the hospital and should also be cost-effective. This research hospital has a formal inservice education programme for the professional nurses, but the question arises: what are their perceptions of the inservice education in this hospital? The aim with this research is to explore and describe the perceptions of the professional nurses on inservice education and to formulate guidelines for improvement. A qualitative research strategy was utilised, with individual focus interviews as method of data collection, followed by a content analysis of the transcribed interviews. Two main categories were identified, being the positive or facilitative perceptions and the negative perceptions/obstacles. Concluding statements were formulated to serve as basis for the description of guidelines on inservice education within this hospital. Guidelines for quality inservice education were formulated, relating to the following: scientific principles to make provision for appropriate assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of the inservice education programme; accessibility of the inservice education sessions; establishment of a positive learning climate by the learning accompanist; credibility of the inservice education programme in the private hospital. It is recommended that these guidelines be implemented and that selected statements be converted to hypotheses and exposed to testing.