What are the continuing education needs of nurse practitioners in northern and rural Ontario?
“Health Canada recently announced that the Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing (COUPN) will administer a $1.5 million fund to support continuing education programs for nurse practitioners (NPs) who work in rural and remote areas in Ontario. COUPN commissioned the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University to conduct an NP continuing education needs assessment study. “The primary objective of this needs assessment was to determine the perceived continuing education needs of NPs in primary care settings in rural, northern, and remote communities in Ontario. This objective was met in part through a survey of NPs practising in northern and rural southern Ontario; “Results from the survey suggested that NPs saw continuing education as important in order to maintain their competency. However, accessing continuing education was difficult due to a variety of barriers such as travel, cost, work, and family obligations. “The three most frequentl
