Staff and professional development methods: facilities available and used by hospital nurses of north India

Self prepared questionnaires and opinionnaire after checking their validity and reliability were administered to 172 Nursing staff comprising of four Nursing Administrators, 33 Nursing sisters and 135 bedside Nurses of randomly selected four district hospitals, representing four Northern states of India. The data revealed that staff and professional development methods including orientation to newly joined staff was negligible. Whereas skill training programs, management training, conferences and seminars were attended only by few Nurses. Other methods like case discussions supervisory rounds, demonstrations used by their hospitals as learning methods were reported by 15.5% Nurses. However, all Nursing staff desired to have in service education at their working place. Hence, there is need for the provision of on the job and off the job training methods.