Three consecutive courses of 3-day duration each were delivered. A
convenience sample of nursing participants was identified by the PBCN
and NICS and allocated into 3 groups. Participants in group 1 and group
2 were ICU nurses then enrolled on the 3-month PBCN ICU course
(as described above). Participants in group 3 were critical care nurses
from ICUs participating in the NICS network. There were no other
attempts to categorize or differentiate the groups beyond this and no
other selection criteria applied. The 3 groups were trained separately
and consecutively.