Planning a Continuing Education Course on Bariatric Nursing

This article provides an overview of how health educators and others can plan training sessions on bariatric nursing for nurses in both academic and practice settings. It gives practical, step-by-step advice on how to develop a continuing education experience and promote it to senior management staff who are responsible for funding both these programs and the salaries of staff who attend them. Although many administrators feel that designing training and educational programs comes almost intuitively to any experienced nurse, this work is best done by nurses who have some expertise in instructional systems design, in collaboration with clinical subject matter experts. This article guides the reader through some of the essential instructional systems design steps in developing an effective learning experience targeted at staff who care for bariatric patients.