Introduction: Health professional workers, including nurses, need continuous in-service training due to the rapid growth of the health industry, competition, diverse and numerous needs of customers. High-quality and effective courses guarantee the competency of staff and efficiency and productivity of organizations. The aim of this study is reviewing the effectiveness of in-service training courses for nurse according Kirkpatrick model.
Methods: This is a review of existing literature based on a systematic search, focusing on published studies on the effectiveness of in-service training for nurses in Iran in the period of 2009-2022. Scopus, PubMed, google scholar and Google search engines, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology, Magiran databases, Scientific Information Database were searched. Data analysis was performed with a qualitative approach and content analysis method.
Results: 45 articles in the initial search and 3 articles in manual review of references were identified. After initial assessment 11 articles include in final analysis. Based on the findings, in-service training in general have been relatively effective. This effectiveness is mostly focused on the first and second level, i. e. reaction and learning, and it has not been very successful in terms of improving skills and performance.
Conclusion: policymakers and managers in the field of human resources should revise the current approach in employee training, take measures at all levels to improve the process, content, methods of training and evaluation, as well as incentive strategies for participation in courses with a special focus on improving their effectiveness.