A descriptive study of the CE needs of nurses serving adolescents in the community

The purpose of this descriptive study was to develop a two-pronged community education database to improve the quality of response to professionals' self-assessed educational needs. The database was designed to include both the self-assessed level of the respondents' learning needs and their perception of the importance of mastery of specific content in reaching targeted outcomes for the adolescents they serve. Sixty-one percent of the 425 surveys mailed to professionals from central and southeastern Ohio were analyzed. Responses were weighted and a scattergraph of the mean scores for each topic was plotted. Implications for nursing continuing education (CE) are discussed.