Objective

To analyze the participation of nurses from the Region of the Americas in a nursing leadership development initiative which uses a self-learning virtual training.

Method

This is a descriptive and quantitative study with qualitative descriptions on data obtained from the Virtual Campus for Public Health PAHO/WHO (VCPH) with the VCPH quality survey - self-learning courses of the Virtual Training of Nursing Leadership: empowerment of nurse leaders in Latin-America. Descriptive statistics were calculated.

Results

3348 nurses participated in this course from august 2015 to july 2018. The nurses from Ecuador, Mexico, and Colombia represented 83.1% of the total participation. Only 8.7% reported having a leadership position specifically. The course was found useful among those persons with barriers related to the access to a permanent education.

Discussion

The larger participation in some countries could be the result of the broader diffusion and access to virtual platforms. The advantages of using a virtual environment include the possibility to further strengthen the training of health human resources, particularly of those with physical barriers related to the development of professional skills.

Conclusions

The training in a virtual environment strengthened the practice skills of the professionals enrolled in the course. Further education programs can take advantage of this kind of platforms to better prepare the future nursing leaders.