Operating from a distance--new directions in perioperative nursing education.

Australia is home to only 17 million people, most of whom live in the coastal areas around the State capital cities. But there are numerous smaller cities, towns and communities scattered in the inland rural areas. Communicating between these centres has proved to be quite a challenge since early settlers arrived and remains so today. Providing education to the population who live away from the capital cities and university centres continues to be a challenge. Many universities, in an attempt to overcome the distance factor, offer external studies courses--the old correspondence courses. Providing a specialty nursing course via external studies had never been attempted in Australia until the NSW College of Nursing took the plunge in 1990 and pioneered a certificate course in perioperative nursing. We were encouraged by the success of a similar venture in Canada some years before.