Assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses after a continuing professional development program: A qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Nurses play a crucial role in the prevention of communicable diseases through the public health immunization programs. Knowledge, attitude and practices of health care providers have significant impact on the vaccine administration and education of adults and parents of children.

Objective: The present qualitative study aims to explore the knowledge, attitude and practices of nurses in Qatar before and after the delivery of the immunization-related continuous professional development program.

Methods: 10 out of 125 nurses who have completed the training program volunteered to participate in the face-to-face interviews. Data was then collected, transcribed and analysed by the researcher team members.

Results: Themes identified from this study: Empowerment, advancing practice and continuing education. Participants felt more confident and had a sense of fulfilment on completion of the education program. Practicing evidenced based skills and methods achieved an outcome of better quality of care, which can directly affect practice. Participants also felt that continuing education allows them to become self-motivated to keep up with new and emerging knowledge. Taken together, our data revealed that continuing professional education immunization-training program was successful in improving the knowledge, attitude and practices of the participants.

Conclusions: Continued education beyond traditional baccalaureate nursing programs in order to ensure nurses possess the knowledge to safely handle, teach and administer vaccines is needed.