Development and evaluation of a PBL-based continuing education for clinical nurses: a pilot study.

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to develop a PBL program for continuing nurse education and to evaluate the program after its implementation. METHODS: The PBL program was developed in the core cardio-pulmonary nursing concepts through a collaborative approach with a nursing school and a hospital. The PBL packages with simulation on ACLS were implemented to 40 clinical nurses. The entire PBL program consisted of six 3-hour weekly classes and was evaluated by the participants' subjective responses. RESULTS: Two PBL packages in cardio-pulmonary system including clinical cases and tutorial guidelines were developed. The 57.5% of the participants responded positively about the use of PBL as continuing nurse education in terms of self-motivated and cooperative learning, whereas 20.0% of the participants answered that the PBL method was not suitable for clinical nurses. Some modifications were suggested in grouping participants and program contents for PBL. CONCLUSION: The PBL method could be utilized to promote nurses' clinical competencies as well as self-learning abilities. Further research is needed in the implementation strategies of PBL-based continuing education in order to improve its effectiveness.