Outcomes and Impact of a Nursing Regulatory Orientation Workshop for Nurse Leaders

Introduction: Methods used by nurse leaders to acquire nursing regulatory knowledge are inconsistent. The North Carolina Board of Nursing (NCBON) has offered a structured regulatory workshop for nurse leaders since the 1990s to provide consistent information in the state. Aim: To assess the outcomes and impact of the NCBON regulatory workshop. Methods: Seventy-three nurse leaders from various clinical practice settings participated in the study, which used a pretest-posttest with repeated measures survey and was guided by the conceptual evaluation models of Ronald Cervero and Roberta Abruzzese. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations (r) were performed to assess the workshop's impact on participant change in knowledge, expertise, and practice behavior and the sustainability of these components over time. Results: Participant knowledge, expertise, and intent to change nursing practice increased after the workshop. Knowledge increase was greater immediately after the workshop compared with 3 months after the workshop; however, knowledge increase was sustained over time. Marginally significant correlations were noted between participant knowledge and level of expertise and between level of expertise and intent to change practice behavior. Conclusion: Findings support the provision of board of nursing (BON) regulatory workshops. Additional research is needed to further address the literature gap related to the impact of BON workshops.