Nurse education today
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The importance of continuing education for nurses has been increasingly emphasized in the nursing literature since the beginning of the profession. The concept of continuing education is often used as a substitute for associated terms such as continuing professional development and lifelong learning, thus highlighting a need for its clarification. The purpose of this article is to explain and describe continuing education, in order to encourage a broader understanding of the concept among nurses. ⋯ Examining everyday discourse used in the nursing literature identified the critical attributes, antecedents and consequence of continuing education in nursing. As a result, the emerging attributes of the concept are synthesised into a conceptual model. The article concludes with an exploration of the application of the concept of continuing education within nursing and its implications for professional development.