Knowing who your partners are: terrorism-preparedness training for nurses.

Continuing education events addressing terrorism preparedness must be evaluated to measure their impact on knowledge acquisition and to assess changes in perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs. The purpose of this focus group study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a terrorism-preparedness training program. The majority of participants thought the training content was extensive, detailed, informative, and practical. Participants reported feeling increased confidence in their abilities to anticipate, recognize, and respond to a terrorist event, and said they made changes related to terrorism preparedness in their homes, workplaces, and communities. This evaluation was useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses of a statewide continuing education program and describing future training needs. Results may be useful to others who are planning terrorism-preparedness training.