Paediatric intensive care nursing education by distance learning: an example from Canada

Abstract

This paper follows a recent publication on the education of nurses for Paediatric Intensive Care (PIC) practice in Australia and New Zealand (Hewitt-Taylor 1998). It arises from the same issues of the identified need for exploration of alternative approaches to PIC education in England to address the shortfall in nurses with appropriate training and education to practice in this area. The exploration of one PIC course in Canada was of particular value, as it used a distance learning approach, which accords with some of the Department of Health (DoH 1997) recommendations for practice in England. The issues of theoretical input and assessment and practical experience and assessment will be addressed here. The course incorporated a case study/problem-based learning approach, which was discussed in the previous paper and will be revisited in this discussion. This paper contains exploration of these issues, and again highlights the perceived importance of PIC courses, as well as in service training.