Introduction: Continuing education is an essential component of nursing professionalism. Nurses also need continues training to improve the quality of nursing care. But a lot of effort is needed to improve how it is done and how effective it is. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the continuing nursing education program in Iran. Methods: The study was conducted in 2020 as a narrative review. Content from searching library and internet resources and searching for articles in SID, Irandoc, Iranmedex, Magiran, and Medlib databases from 2003-2016 using keywords search of continuing education, in-service training, retraining was extracted. A total of 62 goal-related articles were found working in Iran. After reviewing the titles of the articles and abstracts, 14 articles were used to compile this article. Results: Out of 62 articles related to the purpose, 14 articles were included in the study. During the survey from the perspective of nurses to improve the effectiveness of continuing education program in nursing in four general areas of knowledge, skills and performance, needs assessment, satisfaction and implementation of the results were obtained. Conclusions: The results showed that for better effectiveness, the need for change in the four areas of knowledge, skills and performance, needs assessment, satisfaction and implementation seems necessary. Continuing nursing education program should be based on needs assessment and interactive methods should be used for productivity Also, in order to create satisfaction in the nursing staff, adhering to the principles of adult education in planning and using teaching methods such as practical workshops and group discussions can be more attractive and effective.