Variables Influencing the Likelihood of Practice Change after Continuing Education

This study was conducted to identify the continuing education (CE) elements nurses believed were most likely to influence their nursing practice and to examine R. Cervero's (1982) comprehensive model of continuing professional education. A total of 344 registered nurses returned questionnaires about CE. Using a researcher-developed 37-item instrument, 12 items were identified as most important in influencing change. The top three items were potential benefit to the patient, perceived value of the proposed change, and extent to which the change addressed a relevant practice problem. A unifying theme among the three items was their strong practice orientation. All four of Cervero's categories (nature of the learner, the CE program, the proposed change, and the social system) were represented in the top 12 items, with items related to the proposed change and the social system rated the highest. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation resulted in five subscales (CE Program, Difficulty in Implementing, Willing and Able, Experience and Education, and Application to Practice) and accounted for 47% of the explained variance in variables influencing the likelihood of practice change. The findings reinforce the usefulness of Cervero's notion of a multivariate framework when studying the relationship between CE and practice change. (Contains 2 tables and 38 references.) (Author/SLD)