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.