Abstract

Continuing education in nursing are those educational activities planned, to build the base of knowledge and experiences in order to reinforce practice, education, administration, research and theoretical development, with a view to improving the quality of care for the user. Of the health. Health institutions must undertake educational actions in order to stimulate the growth of their health personnel so that they can meet the demands of being human. Continuing education in nursing constitutes a growing need that becomes more accentuated with the increase in professional demands. Andragogy is the method that best suits the characteristics of teaching environments for continuing education. The factors that most influence the participation of nurses in these activities are the support of their supervisors and the availability of adequate continuing education programs.

Abstract

Background: continuing education allows for updating in post-graduation training. A direct relationship has been observed between attendance to such training and improvement of nursing practice.Aim: to find out how personal, professional and motivational factors of nursing professionals influence participation in continuing education in a health care institution.Methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out in nurses from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. For the measurement of motivational factors, the Reasons for Participation Scale and the Instrument of Motivational Factors for Attendance to Continuing Education Courses were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used.Results: there was a predominance of participants over 30 years of age (82.9%), female sex (85.2%) and with a partner (66.1%). The Chi-square test showed that personal and professional factors do not affect the participation of nurses in continuing education. A relationship was found between economic level and the number of hours of continuing education in the last year (χ2 22.014 ª; p<0.001). The motivational factors associated with participation in continuing education were: professional development and improvement (p=0.026) and professional service (p=0.001). Conclusions: nurses' personal and professional factors do not influence their participation in continuing education. Professional development and improvement and professional service are the motivational factors associated with participation in continuing education activities.