1. Online Education for Nursing Practice
Daniel Flaherty
Nursing Informatics
NSG 463
April 22, 2013

2. Abstract Nursing is steeped in education.
Education is needed to become a nurse, to maintain licensure, to pursue a postgraduate degree as well as the healthcare teaching of our patients.
The field of nursing is so diversified that the delivery of nursing education is changing at a rapid rate. The onset of online education is helping nurses adjust to that change.
The evolution of online nursing education programs encompasses nursing schools, postgraduate nursing degree programs, continuing professional development and patient education.
There are many pluses to online learning but computer based education is only as strong as the end user; of 473 nurses who enrolled in an online course only 52% completed siting lack of confidence due to weak computer skills (Sweeney, Saarmann, & Seidman, 2011).

3. Nursing Education in Practice:
Nursing practice is about patient care and education permeates all facets of patient care.
This patient care education infuses all levels of nursing beginning in nursing school, continuing professional education, postgraduate degrees and patient teaching.
With the availability and ease of the internet, dramatic changes in the delivery of education are affecting how nursing schools will develop new graduate nurses.
More and more online education will become further available to empower the nurse in her professional development and enrich her patient teaching skills (Bromley, 2010).
Although the future of online education possesses many positives there are drawbacks.

4. Technology:
Technology is making its presence felt in all aspects of healthcare; we see it in new equipment, advances in patient charting, and in online continuing education units (CEU).
Nursing schools are now placing many of their traditional nursing classes online and are incorporating social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook (Bristol, 2010).
Schools of Nursing are adjusting their curriculum to put some, if not all, of their nursing classes online. Postgraduate nursing degree programs offer many of their nursing classes online to accommodate the working professional offering flexibility and availability.
In the past a nurse had to travel to gain CEU credit and depending on how far she had to travel there was the cost of transportation, hotel accommodation as well as the cost of the educational seminar.
There was also the additional cost factor of scheduling on the unit to cover the nurse’s absence (White, 2009). With the availability of online education, costs of scheduling and transportation logistics are greatly reduced (White, 2009).
The nurse can now gain CEU credit from any computer with internet access.

5. Patient education
Online education does not stop with the nurse’s continuing education; he can now use healthcare websites to help educate his patients.
The use of phone applications, healthcare websites make it easier for nurses to educate their patients empowering them to be make better choices regarding their health and healthcare choices.
This technology will enable patients to be empowered, healthcare consumers. With the use of the internet, phone apps, and social networking sites the nurse must be careful not to blur nurse-patient boundaries (Aylott, 2011).

6. Online education possesses both positive and negative aspects (White, 2009).
Positive aspects include affordable cost with flexibility in both nursing school and post graduate education. There is a wide choice of available continuing education (CE) hours and nurses can now use online education as a source to educate her patients’.
One major negative quality includes the nurse’s inadequate computer skills resulting in nurses not possessing the confidence needed to navigate the online websites (Hoss& Hanson, 2008).
Additionally this lack of confidence generated feelings of fear, loneliness and ineptitude (Reilly, Gallagher-Lepak & Killion 2012).
Regardless of the individual’s computer prowess, hospital administration must encourage and support the nurse’s effort to utilize online education (Sweeney, Saarmann, & Seidman, 2011).

7. Nurses
In a study of 473 nurses who had enrolled in a CE online course only 52% completed the tutorial (Sweeney et all, 2011).
The researchers concluded that these nurses lacked confidence and knowledge to adequately use computer technology to complete the online course.
Younger nurses who have grown up with technology seem to have no issue with online learning.
Older nurses grapple with learning online due to the lack of experience and computer knowledge (Reilly et all, 2012).
This general lack of confidence results in feelings of fear, loneliness and ineptitude (Reilly et all, 2012).

8. The Future
The future of nursing education is going to be online technology; affecting all facets of nursing practice: nursing schools, continuing education and patient instruction.
Healthcare reform along with advancing technology is affecting all areas of nursing practice at a rapid pace; online nursing education and patient teaching will be no exception.

9. References:
Amerson, R. (2011). Facebook: A Tool for Nursing Education Research.
Journal of Nursing Education, 50 (7),
Aylott, M. (2011). Blurring the boundaries: Technology and the nurse-
patient relationship. British Journal of Nursing, 20 (13),
Bristol, T.J. (2010). Twitter: consider the possibilities for continuing
nursing education. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing,
41 (5),
Bromley, P. (2010) Online learning: anywhere anytime education for specialist
nursing. Neonatal, Paediatric And Child Health Nursing. 13 (3), 2-6.
Gyurko, C. C., & Ullmann, J. (2012). Using Online Technology to Enhance
Educational Mobility. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, 16 (1).

10. References:
Hoss, B. & Hanson, D. (2008). Evaluating the Evidence: Web Sites. AORN Journal 87(1), Reilly, R. J., Gallagher-Lepak, S. & Killion, C. (2012). “Me and My Computer”: Emotional factors in Online Learning. Nursing Education Perspectives, 33 (2), Sweeney, N. M., Saarmann, L., Flagg, J., & Seidman, R. (2011). The Keys to Successful Online Continuing Education Programs for Nurses. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 39 (1), White, M. (2009). Online workshops for nurses can save time and money. Practice Nursing (8), 417. Karaman, S. (2011, October) Nurse’s Perceptions of online continuing education. BMC Medical Education. Retrieved from: