Perceptions and competencies of nurse educators in the Province of Capiz

Abstract

This study investigated the characteristics, perceptions on the importance of competencies and the perceived actual competencies of nurse educators in the four nursing schools in the Province of Capiz, and the relationship between their characteristics and their perceived competencies and perceived actual competencies as categorized into teacher, scholar and collaborator. The descriptive-relational study employed the survey design using a self administered questionnaire to collect the needed data. The study population included all the 90 clinical instructors in the four nursing schools in the province of Capiz. The data were computer processed using Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS). The questionnaires were personally distributed and retrieved by the researcher. Mean and frequency count were used to analyze and describe the characteristics and competencies of the respondents. For the bivariate analysis, the Chi-square, Cramer’s V and Gamma Coefficient were employed and to determine the existence and degree of relationships between some variables, correlation coefficient and Z test were used. Major Findings of the Study The results show that majority of the nurse educators were females, middle-aged, married and holders of Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Most of them have served as staff nurse and as nurse educators for one to five years and generally perceived their teacher, scholar and collaborator competencies as very important. The nurse educators in the Province of Capiz were on the mastering level on their perceived actual competencies as teachers, scholars and collaborators as revealed by the mean scores. It was found out that were no significant relationships between the respondents’ perceptions on the importance of competencies and their age, civil status, educational attainment and length of service as staff nurse and nurse educator. However, significant relationships existed between their perceived importance of the nurse educator competencies and their sex. In addition, results reveals that there were no significant relationships between sex, education attainment, length of service as staff nurse and as nurse educator and the respondent’ perceived actual competency levels as teachers, scholars, and collaborators. However, results show a significant relationships between age and civil status and the respondents’ perceived actual competency levels. Among the competencies which were found to be influenced by age were assessing the program needs for future planning, developing curricular based on the mission and helping learners interpret and apply research in nursing practice. All the other competencies in the three roles of nursing were not influenced by age in terms of perceived importance. Sex, was found to influence the respondents’ perception on the importance of their tripartite role in the following competencies such as “delivering client care proficiently, “communicating effectively”, “using current research findings and scholarly work in nursing to improve nursing education”, “disseminating knowledge of best practices in nursing education and research”. In Civil status on the other hand was found to be associated with their perceptions on their competencies on, “involving learners in selecting, planning and evaluating learning experiences”, “helping learners interpret and apply research in nursing practice”, “using knowledge gained through clinical practices in nursing education and research”, “disseminating knowledge of best practices in nursing education and research”, “consulting with others within and outside of the discipline” and “communicating effectively with peers, students, administrators, communities and others to facilitate the enactment of best practice in nursing education. Among the competencies which were found to be influenced by educational attainment were “delivering client care proficiently’, “assessing the program needs for future planning”, “planning appropriate learning experiences”, “prescribing appropriate teaching/learning interventions based on analysis of learners’ needs”, “serving as intellectual role model and mentor for students”, “explaining the nursing curriculum to various constituents-peers, students, administrator, regulatory agency and other health related discipline” and “demonstrating professional and educational values and legal/ethical precepts in interactions. Length of service was the only work-related characteristic found to influence the perceptions of the respondents in the in following competencies: “delivering client care proficiently”, “helping learners recognize the impact of forces”, ’’developing curricula based on the mission”, “consulting with others within and outside of the discipline”, “establishing strong links among educational institutions, clinical institutions and the community”, “communicating effectively with peers, students, administrator, communities and others to facilitate the enactment of best practices in nursing education”, and “demonstrate professional and educational values and legal/ethical precepts in interactions”. Considering the length of service was also found to have a significant influenced on the perceptions of the importance of their tripartite roles in the following competencies, “delivering client care proficiently”, “assessing the program needs for future planning”, “prescribing appropriate teaching/learning interventions based on analysis of learners’ needs, “Recognizing opportunities for conducting research in nursing”, “disseminating knowledge of best practices in nursing education and research”, “serving as intellectual role model and mentor for student as they learn to become scholar”, “consulting with others within and outside of the discipline” and “demonstrating professional and educational values and legal/ethical precepts in interactions”. In general, among the respondents’ personal and work related characteristics, only sex was found to be significantly related to the perceptions of the respondents of the importance of competencies in their tripartite role. Moreover, the respondents perceived the nursing competencies of their role as teacher, scholar and collaborator to be highly important. On the perceived actual competency of the respondents, the nurses were on the mastering level as indicated by the grand mean of 3.88. It was found out that among the personal and work-related characteristics of the respondents; only age and civil status were significantly related to their perceived actual competencies. Likewise, the perceived actual teacher role competencies of the respondents were not related to any of their personal and work-related characteristics. The same result was obtained between the respondents personal and work-related characteristics and perceived actual scholar role. On the other hand, in the perceived actual collaborator role, only civil status among the characteristics of the respondents was found to have significant relationship with their actual collaborator role. In terms of the respondents actual competency levels and their perceived levels of importance of the teacher, scholar, collaborator roles, and the respondents perceived level of importance of their tripartite roles were significantly related to their actual competency levels. Finally, as revealed by the correlation coefficient, significant relationships exist between the respondents’ perceived actual scholar competencies and their perceived importance of teacher role. Also significantly relationship was observed between the respondents’ perceived actual collaborator competencies and their perceived importance of teacher, scholar and collaborator roles. Conclusions Females outnumbered the male nurse educators indicating that nursing is still a female dominated profession. Married women tend to stay longer in the teaching profession as well as nursing staff work. Some have started pursuing advanced studies however, most of them still remain as BSN holders. Younger nurses opted to be nurse educators than the older ones and because they are still young, most do not yet pursue further studies after they have graduated from BSN. For the nurse educators in the Province of Capiz, their tripartite role as teacher, scholar and collaborator is still very important. With positive perceptions, they tend to do their best in educating their students. Most of the respondents possess mastery of their perceived actual competencies as nurse educators. The results imply that the young and new nurses who dominate the population of nurse educators in Capiz are still on the process of honing their competencies to attain expertise, so they can share these to their students with confidence and unquestionable integrity. The respondents’ perceptions on the importance of competencies as teacher, scholar and collaborator vary when grouped according to sex, civil status, educational attainment and length of service as nurse educator. On the other hand, when grouped according to age and length of service as staff nurse, their perceptions do not vary. This implies that regardless of age and experience, the perceptions of the nurse educators’ on their tripartite role competencies is positive. The respondents’ perceptions of their actual competencies as teacher, scholar, and collaborator did not vary when grouped according to sex, educational attainment, and length of service as staff nurse and as nurse educator but varies with age and civil status. Data shows that older and married nurse educators have better perceptions of their actual competencies than the younger and unmarried ones implying that the former are more committed on their jobs than the latter. The respondents’ perceived actual competency levels are not associated with their personal and work related characteristics. Thus, it implies that whether a nurse educator is experienced or not, young or old, male or female , with BSN or with M.A.N./ M.A. or higher, the gauge for their competency levels on the job is on their actual job performance rather than on the mentioned personal and work related characteristics. The perceived importance of the nurse educators on their role as teachers, scholars, collaborators have significant bearings on their perceived actual competencies which is indicative that when nurse educators have higher perceptions of the importance of their tripartite roles, proportionately their perceived actual competencies are also higher. Recommendations 1. Nursing schools should provide nurse educators benefits that would encourage them to perform proficiently and effectively. Further, the institution should provide them free educational development program to further develop their mastery and competence in teaching. 2. The nurse educators should have a high sense of perception of their competencies because this would result to positive outlook on their work. 3. Nurse educators should be high-spirited in educating the student nurses since their enthusiasm would inspire their clientele -the student nurses. 4. Nursing schools should design programs that will enhance the nurse educators perceptions of their tripartite roles because this will also in turn enhance their actual nursing competencies. A similar study should be conducted using other variables aside from those used in the study to verify the results of this investigation.