Focus groups in distance nursing education

This paper describes an educator's experience using focus groups with post-RN nursing students in a course offered by audio teleconferencing. The purposes of implementing focus groups included: to increase involvement of students located in the distance education settings, to implement principles of adult learning, to increase opportunities for drawing on the experience of the students, and to improve the quality of learning experience offered by distance education. An example is given to demonstrate how the process was used to integrate the focus group experience into the distance education classroom.