Difficulties Faced by Nurses Conducting In-Service Education Courses and Strategies Used to Overcome Them:

<p>The purpose of this study is to clarify the difficulties faced by nurses who work in hospitals and conduct in-service education courses and strategies used to overcome them and to consider the implications regarding in-service education. A total of 449 nurses from 60 hospitals were surveyed using a questionnaire that included open-ended questions asking about the difficulties they face with their responsibilities as instructors and how they overcome these. Of the 293 responses collected (65.3% response rate) and 44 responses from the pilot study with the same questions about difficulties (for a total of 337 responses), 290 valid responses were analyzed via the content analysis method for nursing education based on the Berelson’s method. The results revealed 22 types of difficulties faced by the aforementioned nurses and 34 methods for overcoming difficulties. The concordance rate with the categorical classification using Scott’s formula was more than 70% in both cases, indicating that the categories were highly reliable. We also analyzed the correspondence between difficulties and methods of overcoming them. As a result of considering the difficulties by focusing on the cause, seven characteristics were clarified. Additionally, we investigated the difficulties associated with each characteristic and the methods for overcoming them, and obtained suggestions for improving the quality of in-service education. The results of this study will assist nurses who serve as instructors in objectively understanding the challenges they face, identifying ways to overcome them, and effectively executing their roles as instructors.<br> </p>