Staff development sessions. A strategy to facilitate nursing staff education with limited teaching resources

A reduction in clinical nursing educator positions resulted in the need for the Department of Nursing to continue to facilitate the professional development of nursing staff members with limited resources. In this article, the author describes a program, developed by the central Nursing Education Department at The Toronto Hospital, that was offered to clinical resource nurses, nurse managers, patient care coordinators, and preceptors. These individuals could use the information to promote the development of nursing staff members at the unit level. Several topics were presented: self-directed learning, needs assessment, behavioral objectives, lesson plans, teaching strategies, educational program evaluation, and clinical evaluation. Program evaluations were positive, and 45% of the respondents indicated they had the opportunity to apply what they learned.