DETERMINANTS OF CHANGES IN NURSES BEHAVIOR AFTER CONTINUING-EDUCATION- A LITERATURE-REVIEW

Nursing continuing-education programmes may differ in the extent to wh ich they affect nursing practice. Differences may be explained by char acteristics of the participants' background, the programme itself, tea cher(s), relationship between participants, relationship between parti cipants and teacher(s), physical environment during the programme, par ticipants' social system, knowledge, skills and attitudes, and intenti on to change. In this literature review, a model is presented which in tegrates these variables and which may be used to explain why continui ng-education programmes have no, little or considerable effect. On the basis of current scientific knowledge, colleagues' and superiors' sup port emerges as the most important determinant of behavioural changes in nursing practice.