Abstract

Purpose: Nursing competency is necessary for patient safety. With global nursing shortage and high demand for Filipino nurses, there was increase in nursing schools and enrolments since 1998. This has implications on nursing education and beginning competencies of professional nurses. This study assessed core skills and knowledge of senior students as indicator for beginning graduate nurses and their faculty, and identify gaps in competencies as input to nursing education.

Methods: This was a descriptive, correlational study of 745 randomly selected senior students in 12 randomly selected schools in Metro Manila using internet-based Filipino-adapted NurseMetriX competency appraisal test collaboratively developed with Global Nursing Network. Student competencies were compared with clinical faculty to determine articulation and gaps.

Results: Using 70% as reference point, student performance was below expected with mean scores of 55% for overall core nursing and 57% for medication administration. Lowest scores were in basic pharmacology (43%), IV flow rate (43%), medicine interaction (50%), knowledge of care management (50%), and clinical reasoning (52%). Faculty performed better in all domains (66% for overall core nursing, 64% for medication administration) but also had low scores in basic pharmacology (53%), IV flow rate (47%) and medicine interaction (56%). Student skills and knowledge were highly correlated on core nursing (r=0.840, p=0.0006) and medication administration (r=0.762, p=0.004). For faculty, there was lower correlation (r=0.28 for core nursing, r= -0.111 for medicine). Correlation analysis for subskills and knowledge were also done showing similar trend.

Conclusion: Student competencies were below expected level particularly in areas that impact patient safety such as pharmacology, IV, medicine administration. Knowledge management and clinical reasoning is also below expected. Student competencies are expected to be parallel faculty competencies. Although faculty performed better, it was below expected. This has implications on faculty recruitment and development, and size of student intake of schools.

Author Details

Tuazon, Josefina A., RN, BSN, MN, DrPH; Valera, Joan, RN, BSN, MPH

Sigma Membership

Iota Sigma

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Competency Assessment, Nursing Education

Conference Name

23rd International Nursing Research Congress

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Brisbane, Australia

Conference Year

2012

Rights Holder

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All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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Assessing core competencies of senior nursing students and faculty as input to Philippine competency-based education

Brisbane, Australia

Purpose: Nursing competency is necessary for patient safety. With global nursing shortage and high demand for Filipino nurses, there was increase in nursing schools and enrolments since 1998. This has implications on nursing education and beginning competencies of professional nurses. This study assessed core skills and knowledge of senior students as indicator for beginning graduate nurses and their faculty, and identify gaps in competencies as input to nursing education.

Methods: This was a descriptive, correlational study of 745 randomly selected senior students in 12 randomly selected schools in Metro Manila using internet-based Filipino-adapted NurseMetriX competency appraisal test collaboratively developed with Global Nursing Network. Student competencies were compared with clinical faculty to determine articulation and gaps.

Results: Using 70% as reference point, student performance was below expected with mean scores of 55% for overall core nursing and 57% for medication administration. Lowest scores were in basic pharmacology (43%), IV flow rate (43%), medicine interaction (50%), knowledge of care management (50%), and clinical reasoning (52%). Faculty performed better in all domains (66% for overall core nursing, 64% for medication administration) but also had low scores in basic pharmacology (53%), IV flow rate (47%) and medicine interaction (56%). Student skills and knowledge were highly correlated on core nursing (r=0.840, p=0.0006) and medication administration (r=0.762, p=0.004). For faculty, there was lower correlation (r=0.28 for core nursing, r= -0.111 for medicine). Correlation analysis for subskills and knowledge were also done showing similar trend.

Conclusion: Student competencies were below expected level particularly in areas that impact patient safety such as pharmacology, IV, medicine administration. Knowledge management and clinical reasoning is also below expected. Student competencies are expected to be parallel faculty competencies. Although faculty performed better, it was below expected. This has implications on faculty recruitment and development, and size of student intake of schools.