An Evaluation of Health Promotion Competencies of Undergraduate Nursing Students
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Date
2010-04-01
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Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council
Abstract
This research aimed to compare health promotion competencies of undergraduate nursing students as perceived by students and instructors. The study samples comprised 508 senior nursing students from 10 faculties of nursing who were studying in second semester of 2006 academic year, and 257 instructors in the same undergraduate programs. All instructors taught both theoretical and practical nursing courses in the programs. Two self- report questionnaires used for data collection in this study included demographic data form and the Professional Nurse’s Health Promotion Competencies Questionnaire. It consisted of 5 subscales: personal characteristic in health promotion, nursing activities in health promotion, management in health promotion, development of health promotion network, and research and knowledge management in health promotion. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was .96. Research coordinator for each nursing faculty distributed the questionnaires to students and instructors, simple randomly selected from 50 percent of the population. Mean, standard deviation and an independent t-test were used to compare the health promotion competencies as perceived by students and instructors. Research findings showed that mean scores of the total scale of health promotions competencies of undergraduate nursing students as perceived by students and instructors were 3.50 and 3.38, respectively. Subscale mean scores of students’ perception ranged from 3.12 to 3.69 while subscale mean scores of instructors’ perception ranged from 2.72 to 3.65. There were statistically significant differences between mean scores of the total scale perceived by students and instructors at p \< .05. Statistical differences were also found in the management in health promotion subscale, development of health promotion network subscale, and research and knowledge management in health promotion subscales. Research findings suggested that nursing faculties should establish health promotion competencies appropriate to educational level and expectations of stakeholders, and informed the students regarding the expected competencies in order to prepare them to meet the expectations.
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Thai Journal of Nursing Council; Vol.23 No.3 July-September 2008; 85-95