Nurses’ Perceptions of Continuing Education and Barriers: Case Study of a Prison Hospital in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study sought to examine prison hospital nurses’ perceptions towards continuing education and barriers following declining participation trends. A case study method comprising a randomly selected sample of twenty-nine (29) participants was adopted. Soni’s (2012) Lifelong Learning Conceptual Framework guided the study. Data that were collected using semi-structured questionnaires were presented in tabular form and then analysed using coding and theme development procedures. The findings were that nurses perceived continuing education as being important, were intrinsically motivated to improve their knowledge and health care practice but faced a shortage of both funding and study time. The study recommended that employers should create a continuing education fund and policies that support nurses’ continuing education. Higher education institutions were challenged to provide continuing education programmes tailor- made for the complex health needs of prisoners, through degree programmes of shorter duration and lesser cost than was currently obtaining prevailing.