Abstract:

Nurses and midwives contribute close to 50% of the global healthcare workforce and are at the frontline of providing nursing care to the public. Hence, nurses must maintain their practice by renewing their license. This systematic review examines the attitude and practice of registered nurses regarding nurse license renewal, and identifies barriers experienced during the renewal process. The search strategy utilized were Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, and EBSCOHost databases using search terms nurse, license, and renewal. Inclusion Criteria include articles published within 10 years, full text, peer reviewed, and in English. Results revealed a total of 10 articles that fit the Criteria. Majority of articles revealed nurses had an overall positive attitude and practice due to the importance of mandatory continuing education as a requirement for license renewal, and a significant relationship between knowledge and practice of checking license status (p<0.05). Barriers were identified as “time constraint”, “lack of support” in the workplace, “financial contains” and “lack of access”. Evidence relating to license renewal by payment of fees only was very limited, and further research is needed to develop to better support for registered nurses during the renewal process. Limitations of the review include no access CINAHAL database, and articles with Abstract only, which would have enriched the review. In conclusion, majority of nurses had a positive attitude and practice regarding the renewal of license, and experienced barriers the process.

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