Access to and support for continuing professional education amongst Queensland nurses: 2004 and 2007

Access to and support for continuing professional education amongst Queensland nurses: 2004 and 2007

This paper reports on the findings of a prospective exploratory study related to nurses’ self-reports of continuing professional education access and support gathered from two postal surveys undertaken in 2004 and 2007 of 3,000 nurses in Queensland, Australia. Over 85% of the nurses reported they had access to continuing professional education activities. However, it is apparent that the majority of these activities are either partially or completely self-funded. Further, between 2004 and 2007 the amount of financial support provided by employers for continuing education and training activities has decreased significantly. While there were differences between 2004 and 2007, the major barriers to being able to attend continuing professional education were financial (could not afford the fee involved; could not afford to take unpaid leave to attend). The third major barrier in both 2004 and 2007 was having the time to undertake the activity. Analysis for difference between nurses in different geographical locations indicated that distance remains a major barrier for nurses in rural and remote areas. These quantitative findings were supported by the qualitative findings on nurses’ work where ‘education and training’ was, overall, the fifth highest ranked issue requiring further attention.

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