Approaches to continuing professional development: putting theory into practice

This article provides an overview of approaches to and models of education to assist nurses involved in the delivery of education and continuing professional development. A number of models will be summarised to look at how learning, teaching and assessment can be integrated to benefit the learner, and the benefits this may have in nursing education and continuing professional development courses. The author also considers different domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. This article presents the case for considering the constructive alignment of educational content as one means of increasing the likelihood of it being translated into practice.