Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Unique Innovations in Nursing Education
The Israeli Model for Post Basic Education: Professional and Personal Benefits
Orly Toren, RN, PhD, Nursing division, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, Hana Kerzman, RN, PhD, Nursing Division, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, Maya Siman-Tov, MA, Nursing Division, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, Ronit Kigli-Shemesh, RN, MA, Nursing Division, Ness-Ziona Mental Health Center, Nes Ziona, Israel, and Ilya Kagan, RN, MA, Epidemiology Unit, Assaf-Ha-Rofeh Medical Center, Zrifin, Israel.
Learning Objective #1: understant the contribution of the post basic education to nurses' professional identity
Learning Objective #2: understand the contribution of the post basic education to job satisfaction.
A developed model for continuing education is implemented in Israel for several years. This model is based on special post basic courses in different clinical areas of care such as intensive care, psychiatry, oncology, neonate intensive care, etc. The post basic courses are license based, qualifying nurses to provide care based on broad professional clinical education. Graduates can implement special technical intervention and practice nursing using proficient capabilities.
Purpose: to assess contribution of the post basic education to nurses' professional identity and job satisfaction.
Methodology: a cross sectional study on 436 nurses from two major hospitals in the center of the country (tertiary canter and psychiatry hospital). Data was collected using specific questionnaires including 4 chapters related to professional identity: personal and professional image, work satisfaction and the contribution of post basic education to nursing practice. Nurses with and without post basic course education were participated for comparison reasons.
Findings: nurses with post basic education highly estimated the contribution of the post basic education regarding independent decision making (50% vs. 40% p<.0001) and special skills and capabilities (55% vs. 38% p<.01). Significant differences were found regarding personal professional image and professional image of a clinical area between nurses with post basic education and who had no such education. No difference regarding job satisfaction was found between the two groups. Contribution of post basic education was one of the main factors that predicted personal  professional image, professional image of the clinical area and job satisfaction.
Conclusions: The Israeli model of post basic courses enables nurses to specialize in different clinical  areas. With this training nurses are able to gain high professional skills for better nursing intervention, they have more self confidence regarding decision making and they have the authority to decide and intervene for better quality of care. 

See more of Unique Innovations in Nursing Education
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)