How nurse teachers keep up-to-date: their methods and practices

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• Nurse teachers require effective strategies to maintain up-to-date knowledge and skills.
• Continuous professional development is crucial for delivering quality nursing education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the methods and practices nurse teachers use for professional updating.
• To identify the perceived value of various updating activities among nurse teachers.
• To explore how different updating activities serve distinct professional development purposes.

Main Methods:

• A two-stage questionnaire survey was administered to 316 nurse teachers.
• In Stage 1, 240 respondents rated 13 updating activities.
• In Stage 2, 14 activities were rated for specific purposes (topping up, restoring fluency, increasing depth, expanding knowledge/skills).

Main Results:

• Reading journals was most frequently rated as indispensable for updating.
• Nurse teacher qualifications and years of experience did not significantly affect their ratings of updating activities (P < 0.05).
• The category 'restoring fluency' showed the most discrimination among the four purposes for rating activities.

Conclusions:

• Journal reading is a highly valued method for nurse teachers to stay current.
• Updating practices are largely consistent across different levels of experience and qualifications.
• Understanding the specific purposes of updating activities can refine professional development strategies for nurse educators.