Mandatory continuing professional education: trends and issues.

Mandatory Continuing Professional Education is a major issue for nurses in Australia today. The overseas experience is that MCPE has been in force for nursing in half of the United States for twenty years and has just been implemented in the United Kingdom. The major arguments against it are that it violates the principles of adult education and professional behaviour. The major arguments for it are that it protects the public against incompetence and voluntary CPE does not work. The major issues are its effectiveness, cost, educational implications, impact on the workplace and methods of regulation.