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.

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.

The impact of a blended learning approach on instructor and learner satisfaction with preceptor education.

To further enhance satisfaction and effectiveness, six pediatric hospitals created a blended learning approach to preceptor role preparation. In this blended approach, foundational content was delivered via online learning, allowing the classroom instructors to focus more on experiential learning activities. Both preceptor-learners and classroom instructors were asked to complete an evaluation of their experiences. This article describes the results and implications.