Continuing education outcomes related to pain management practice.
BACKGROUND
Nursing practice outcomes of continuing education need to be measured and reported as one indicator of the value of nursing continuing education. This article makes the case that knowledge gain, the traditional measure of continuing education effectiveness, is not necessarily sufficient to assess changes in nursing practice.


METHODS
A pretest/posttest design was used to measure nursing practice outcomes of a continuing education program about pain management. A total of 50 attendees returned both the pretests and posttests and 68 attendees returned the follow-up evaluation.


RESULTS
Ninety-four percent of the respondents had improved scores on the posttest. Ninety-one percent of the follow-up evaluation respondents stated they had an opportunity to use the new information and 98% stated the use of this information has improved patient care.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found that a continuing education program triggered practice changes. The results of this study correlate with previous research that supports the need for practice outcome measurements.
Czurylo
K
K
Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-3397, USA.
Gattuso
M
M
Epsom
R
R
Ryan
C
C
Stark
B
B
D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D010146:Pain / Q000451:nursing*; D015397:Program Evaluation