traditional, academic movement. Continuing education is another educational model that delivers education to adults in a non-academic format. One of the most notable models of continuing education, which has a long history, is the paradigm followed for educating professionals who must stay abreast of the latest knowledge developed in their fields (Suderman, 1995).
Continuing education for professional nurses provides an example of this model as well as a critical issue which affects the non-traditional learning environment. Non-traditional adult education can learn from the nursing profession, that on-going education is essential for keeping up with latest knowledge and this issue has resulted in increased demand for non-traditional education. Suderman (1995) wrote that the levels of nursing education span a ôcontinuum from diploma-level education, which is applicable to the licensed practical nurse, to the doctorate in nursing, which is not associated directly with any level of licensure and, in the past at least, has prepared nurses for responsibilities in teaching and researchö (p. 31).
Licensure for nurses is an indication that those individuals who are licensed have demonstrated competence at the specific level of nursing practice for which they are licensed. While nurses are required to successfully sit for examinations to obtain a license to practice nursing, most ôstate jurisdictions require that individuals satisfy minimum levels of formal educational preparation before they sit for license examinationsö (Suderman, 1995, p. 40). Suderman further contended that to maintain licenses, nurses must participate in adult continuing-education programs to maintain high levels of current knowledge. Considering the rapid advances being made in both nursing practice and medical technology, and based on a sound assumption that such rapid advances will continue, it seems only prudent to make continuing education a requirement for...