The importance of e-learning in professional improvement of emergency nurses.

INTRODUCTION: Emergency nursing is a young specialization enabling to take up a job in the State Emergency Medical Services in Poland. The continuous improvement of emergency medicine requires improving the qualifications of medical personnel through the implementation of various forms of professional development. The study was conducted to assess the importance of modern forms of postgraduate education among emergency nurses. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study uses a authorial questionnaire addressed to 100 nurses and male nurses who are actively working in the emergency medical system in Poland. The parametric tests T-test and χ2, V-Cramer and One-way Anova were used for data analysis. All results were considered significant at p <0.05. RESULTS: The study group consisted of 77 women and 23 men, and the average age was 40,18 years. The majority (45%) work in a hospital emergency department or admission room, and 84% of respondents declare to have higher education. In the last five years, 24% of respondents did not participate in any development courses, and 50% took training only 1-2 times, indicating numerous difficulties. The respondents (n = 44) indicated e-learning methods as the most attractive in professional improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Professional development courses for emergency nurses are implemented sporadically. Online educational programs are a desirable form of continual learning. In order to improve the quality of postgraduate education in emergency nursing, further work towards the improvement of e-learning courses is recommended.