Critical Care Nurses' Perceptions about the Continuing Nursing Education at Saudi Hospitals: Educational Needs and Universities' Role

Continuing nursing education can help nurses to stay current on the latest best practices and also become more knowledgeable about a particular area of interest; furthermore, the completion of continuing nursing education initiatives is often a requirement to maintain certifications or licenses that serve to demonstrate nurses’ qualifications to employers, patients, and families. This study aimed to identify the preferences of nurses regarding continuing nursing education, educational requirements, and their perceptions about the role of universities in the delivery of continuing nursing education programs to hospital staff. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive exploratory design utilizing a convenience sample of 100 nurses working in the critical care departments of two hospitals in Al-Qassim, KSA (government and private). A structured questionnaire, which was constructed by the researcher, was distributed to nurses over one month. The collected data were analyzed and tabulated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). All ethical principles of scientific research were considered. As per nurses’ opinions in the results, the benefits of continuing nursing education include improving knowledge and skills, critical thinking, and decision-making as well as promoting professional growth. Nurses’ preferable ways of getting continuing education were attending conferences or live classroom lectures, online, and through journals, respectively. They preferred participating in a monthly-based schedule, i.e., one day a week for less than three hours. Nurses have a positive belief that universities should hold more responsibility for promoting continuing education at hospitals. Creating partnerships between hospitals and the nursing faculties or colleges of the local community is highly recommended. Continuing nursing education programs must be built upon the survey of nurses' opinions about the most important or requested topics from the nurses’ points of view.