Continuing education course in microbiology for registered nurses

Continuing education in the health professions is now a necessity for the administration of quality health care. Continuing education courses can provide awarenesses of technological changes as well as refresh memories of basic principles and theories once learned in undergraduate schooling. The nursing profession is not exempt from this and is actively defining those continuing education topics needed by working nurses. The purpose of this study was: (1) to determine if nurses are interested in learning more about clinical microbiology in a continuing education course; (2) to determine what specific topics in microbiology would be the most important to emphasize in a continuing education course for nurses; (3) to recommend a course of study in clinical microbiology geared towards the working nurse. Questionnaires were sent to 200 registered nurses in the state of Utah. The random sample was taken from the population of nurses living in the Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber counties. Forty-five percent of the nurses responded, and the results were analyzed on the computer. Frequency distributions aided in pinpointing nursing duties which related to clinical microbiology. Crosstabulations were also performed in order to determine whether or not any specialized groups or areas of nursing have specific needs in the area of microbiology. A very high percentage of nurses indicated interest in a continuing education course in microbiology. The analysis of the questionnaire showed that certain basic microbiology topics, such as specimen collection, are often included in routine nursing duties and should definitely be included in the course content. It may also be possible, from the information gathered in this study, to project a relevant undergraduate microbiology course for nurses.