Nurse administrators' perceptions of the impact of continuing nursing education in underserved areas

Qualitative inquiry can provide new dimensions to existing knowledge about how nurses use information from continuing education participation in practice. This study offers descriptions from the perspective of nurse administrators in an underserved area and a time of shrinking resources of nurses' application and use of knowledge gained from continuing education participation. Summarized within a model of change, learning was expressed in personal and professional dimensions including stimulus for innovation, educational and career mobility, networking, sharing knowledge, problem-solving, and improving patient care. Change indicators were the infrastructure linking the implementation in professional practice.