A Survey of viewpoints of nurses employed in treatment and teaching centers of Kashan and suburb about continuing medical education (CME) Priorities in 2010

Introduction: Needs’ assessment is the first stage in designing Continuing Medical Education (CME) Programs. To obtain clients’ satisfaction with services of nurses as the largest group providing health and treatment services, designing and executing educational programs related to their needs is necessary. This study was conducted to determine CME priorities of nursing graduates employed in treatment and teaching centers of Kashan and suburb. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 238 nurses. Separate questionnaires were designed for different hospital wards. Every educational subject was scored on a Likert scale ranging from zero to ten. Data were extracted, classified and analyzed in SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: In general (9.18±1.44), surgical (9.40±1.63) and emergency wards (9.32±1.79), the most important need identified was cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In intensive care units (ICU), dialysis units and pediatrics and neonatal ICU wards, identified items included deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (9.02±1.53), bone metabolic diseases (9.91±0.28), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (9.29±0.91) and asphyxia (9.78±0.41), respectively with the greatest mean scores. Conclusion: From viewpoint of studied nurses, the most important CME priorities were learning clinical skills about managing patients with unstable conditions and correct utilization of medical equipments which are related to their everyday practice. It is necessary that CME planners and policy makers to pay attention to nurses’ CME needs which are different across various wards.