Beijing City, 637 Nurses Participate In Continuing Education, Motivation And Learning Disabilities Survey

Background: The continuing nursing education has been developed for 10 years in Beijingsince 1996. Its great influence on nursing has been seen, meanwhile the problems are stillunavoidable which inhibit the participation and the final effects. The roots of theseproblems are referring to the learning motivation and the deterrents which are unknown inChina nowadays.Objectives: To describe the learning motivation and the learning deterrents to participatingin the continuing nursing education, and to compare the differences under different groups.Methods: Stratified and two-stage sampling was used in this descriptive research. 637nurses, from three general hospitals with the third level (the top hospitals)and six generalhospitals with the second level, were asked to administer a questionnaire which composesof Education Participation Scale(EPS),Deterrent to participation-General Scale(DPS-G) andthe demographic data. The reliability and validity of EPS and DPS-G were confirmed inthis research.Results: For the learning motivation, the score range of 42 items was from 3.24±0.86 to1.33±0.73. And among the scores of seven dimension in EPS, the professionaladvancement was the highest(2.57±0.69) and the social stimulation was thelowest(1.59±0.62). For the learning deterrent, the scores of 34 items were between3.20±1.27 and 1.48±0.93, and the first dimension was time constraints (2.98±1.07)and lackof confidence was the last(1.67±0.75) according to the decending order of scores in the sixdimensions of DPS-G. In learning motivation, there were differences in eight nurse's traits,such as age, the education level of the spouses, the highest educational background,etc.. Inlearning deterrents, there were differences under eight different groups as well, such asmarital status, the education level of the spouses, the highest educational background, etc..Conclusions and Suggestions: The level of learning motivation is medium and the internalmotivation is higher while the external learning deterrents occupy the higher weight andthey are in medium level too. Because under different groups the learning motivation andlearning deterrents were different, the clinical administers and continuing educators should take interventions to stimulate and maintain the motivations and to overcome the deterrentsaccording to their own characters. It will be suggested to wider the pepulation or to applythe qualitative methods in the future research.