Preparing for mandatory continuing education--assessing interests.

Assessment of needs is the foundation of nursing practice as well as nursing education. To increase responsivity to the continuing education (CE) needs of registered nurses (RNs) within a small, yet diverse, mid-Atlantic state in which CE was recently mandated for relicensure, a telephone survey was used to gather information on a large nonrandomized sample of RNs. Preferences for types of programming, methods and locations for acquiring CE, scheduling, academic credit in addition to CE credit, and an automated service for maintaining CE attendance records were identified. This study presents an overview of survey results helpful in planning offerings most likely to attract and satisfy nurses.