Evaluating the impact of a continuing education program on change in gerontologic nursing practice.

In this article, the authors describe behavior changes reported by nurses after attending a continuing education program that addressed nursing care of the gerontologic client in the acute hospital setting. Although participants reflected positively upon knowledge gained at the conference and described themselves as amenable to change, they associated environmental and administrative factors negatively with implementation of practice changes. Conclusions from descriptive analysis of responses yielded suggestions for strategies to enhance the impact of continuing education programs on nursing care of the aged client.