Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
This article takes a renewed look at continuing education (CE) within the discipline of nursing. Increasing complexity in the personal, professional, and social environments in which nursing is practiced, as well as changes in the present educational foundation of nurses all signal a need for a broader, more comprehensive concept of the content and process of CE. The continuing professional learning process (CPLP) is presented as a beginning attempt to view nursing CE from a more comprehensive perspective. The CPLP is a multifaceted, helical, on-going process of learning, patterned and directed by the learner. The CPLP, which incorporates the multiple contexts of nursing and nursing practice, and which may encompass learning of an informal, formal, or academic nature, has as its end the enhancement of the professional and the profession.
Continuing learning in nursing is complex. The content of learning is comprehensive and multidimensional, and the process of learning demands the development and use of sophisticated learning skills. The personal, professional, and social environments in which nurses practice are increasingly complex, creating new and ever-changing demands on the content and process of their continuing learning. The subject matter of that learning may include areas as diverse as mastering the application of advanced technology in home care to studying the philosophical bases of ethical decision-making. The activities to promote learning may require participation in different modes of continuing education (CE), such as conducting a practice experience under the mentorship of a clinical nurse expert or engaging in tutorial learning with a nurse philosopher. Today, more than ever, CE requires a learner who is skilled in the process of continuing learning. CE also is becoming more complex because the nurse's preparatory education is more complex.
In light of these new demands on CE, it is an appropriate time to reflect on what we perceive to be appropriate content and how it is best learned or developed. In addition to the further development of the nurse as a person, practitioner of nursing, and member of a professional community, CE must address the effects of increasingly complex environments and preparatory education on the content and process of learning.
Learning must be sequential, continuous, and lifelong. A pattern of CE that comprises intermittent, episodic, or discontinuous learning experiences...