Continuing education needs of currently practicing nurses towards the self-care management of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients

The primary purpose of this study was to identify the continuing education needs of currently practicing nurses involved in educating the newly diagnosed patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus in the self-care management of diabetes.; A population-based mailed survey was conduced. The survey questionnaire was developed by the investigator. An elicitation survey was used to ask 20 direct care practitioners and members of the National Staff Development Organization what they perceived practicing nurses need to learn to improve the self-care management abilities of patients with Type 2 diabetes. A survey questionnaire using 47 needs items was then created. A pilot study to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire using a test-retest approach showed that the instrument was reliable. Professionals in the field screened the questionnaire items for validity.; The main survey respondents in this present study consisted of direct care practitioners and educators who were the members of New York State Nurses Association. The surveys were sent to 388 direct care practitioners and 92 educators, totaling 480 members of NYSNA. Of the 388 direct care practitioners, 222 (57%) responded to the survey and of the 92 educators, 62 (67%) answered the survey.; The study showed a significant difference in how practitioners and educators perceived the same items. The higher percentage scores for educators compared with those recorded for the direct care practitioners supported the present study hypothesis that educators would perceive the needs items to be more important than practitioners.; Overall, the findings in this study are consistent with those found by previous researchers. The findings show that there were significant differences between practitioners and educators in each of the three domains of continuing education needs examined: Assessment Skills, Knowledge Area, Attitudes and Values, and Barriers. The elicitation survey method of generating the questionnaire items proved useful and increased awareness of both groups for further education.; Recommendations are: (1) enhance collaboration of educators and practitioners in planning continuing education for practicing nurses to improve quality of care for diabetes patients and (2) further identify the continuing education needs of practicing nurses treating diabetes patients in order to develop an appropriate continuing education programs.