Measuring Return on Investment for Professional Development Activities: Pandemic Impacts and Revised Known Cost of Outcomes.

Measurement of the economic impact of professional development activities is essential for resource decision-making. Part 1 of this series described recent literature on economic impact of educational activities and challenged readers to publish more on the financial impact of programs. This article uses scenarios to demonstrate how professional development activities can add value to resource decision-making as we navigate the pandemic and provides an update of the "Known Costs of Outcomes" table.

Measuring Return on Investment for Professional Development Activities: Literature Update and the Ongoing Challenge.

How do you articulate the value of professional development (PD) activities? In addition to reporting the number of learners, frequency of offerings, and unique courses offered, are you correlating education to outcomes (patient or employee)? Are you capturing the cost of implementing learning activities or initiatives to demonstrate the need for resources dedicated to PD? If you answered "no," then you are missing measurement of the economic impact of PD essential for resource decision-making.

Impact of Repetitive Text Messages on Retention of Knowledge.

BACKGROUND: Because of frequent changes in health care, nursing requires lifelong learning. Information learned in nursing school is not enough. To deliver quality patient care throughout their career, nurses need to keep up with these changes. METHOD: This quantitative study explored using repetitive text messaging to improve retention of information to help nurses keep up with the perpetual changes in nursing. Participants attended a class, took an examination, and then were placed randomly in either a control or an experimental group. The experimental group received text messages with key details from the class, whereas the control group did not receive text messages. Participants took the examination again and group pretest-posttest scores were compared. RESULTS: The experimental group showed statistically significant improvement in the final examination scores, whereas the control group showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that repetitive text messaging can be used to enhance retention of information. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2019;50(9):399-403.].

Measuring Return on Investment for Professional Development Activities: 2018 Updates.

What is the return on investment for the time and resources spent for professional development activities? This is an update of the two articles published in 2016, which reviewed literature and demonstrated how financial analysis of educational activities can drive decision-making. Professional development activities are routinely planned based on needs assessments, implemented with evidence-based learning modalities, and evaluated for effectiveness through linkage to outcomes. The next level of evaluation is consideration of the economic impact of professional development activities. This article includes a review of the most recent studies that provide cost of educational interventions along with a description of economic outcomes and an update to the "Known Costs of Outcomes Table."

Measuring Return on Investment for Professional Development Activities: Implications for Practice.

What is the return on investment (ROI) for the time and resources spent for professional development activities? This is Part 2 of a two-part series to report findings and demonstrate how financial analysis of educational activities can drive decision-making. The resources consumed for professional development activities need to be identified and quantified to be able to determine the worth of such activities. This article defines terms and formulas for financial analysis for nursing professional development practitioners to use in analysis of their own programs. Three fictitious examples of common nursing professional development learning activities are provided with financial analysis. This article presents the "how to" for the busy practitioner.

Measuring Return on Investment for Professional Development Activities: A Review of the Evidence.

In the current complex healthcare environment in which organizations are dealing with reimbursement challenges, nursing professional development practitioners must increasingly demonstrate that the time and resources dedicated to educational activities are worth the impact they have on outcomes. Measuring return on investment guides decisions on resources (people, supplies, time) used for professional development activities by showing the financial impact of such activities. The purpose of this project was to review the literature on return on investment for professional development activities to best guide decision-making for limited resources. This is Part I of two articles, the first of which provides a review of the literature. The second article provides guidance for conducting financial analyses of nursing professional development activities.