[Distance education retraining program: general nursing]

Distance- or distance contact education provides registered nurses with an ideal opportunity for professional growth. This method also fulfils a need to study without the problem of being absent from family, occupational and social responsibilities. It seemed that students are enthusiastic about their studies despite personal, financial and other difficulties. At the end of the course students claimed that their self-confidence improved and that they were better equipped to give high quality nursing care. Using the Spearman Correlation Coefficient there was substantial correlation between the metric results and the final course symbol for this group of students [alpha .05 (p.002)]. No correlation existed between the selection average of 1-9 and the different subjects as for example General Nursing and Ethos. If the decision is taken to present courses according to the distance contact education method, careful planning is essential. Some of the recommendations to assure the success include: * sound structuring of infrastructure and subject material * improvement of selecting procedures; and * the orientation of lectures to cope with the role of facilitator. The professional growth of students during their period of study proves to be worth the effort to present such a course.