Issue: IeJSME 2016 10(2)

Authors: Swee Geok Lim, Muhamad Asyraf Bin Muhtar.

ABSTRACT

Background: Nurses are the “front line” staff in most health systems and their contribution is recognised as essential in meeting development goals and delivering safe and effective care (ICN, 2007). Nurses are in high demand not only in developed countries but also in developing countries like Malaysia. However, more than 70% of Malaysian hospitals currently do not have adequate nursing staff. At least 174,000 nurses need to be trained by 2020 to meet WHO’s nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:200. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the nursing students’ decision to choose nursing as their career.

Method: A descriptive study guided by Self Determination Theory was used for this study. A 29-item questionnaire adapted from McCabe, Nowak and Mullen (2005) was distributed to all students in a nursing college (n=117).

Results: The five main reasons for choosing nursing as a career were “ability to help others”, “training was provided on the job”, “ability to work closely with people”, “parental advice”, and “accommodation was provided while training”. The top three main domains that influenced the nursing students’ decision to choose nursing as their career include “travel opportunities of nursing”, “intrinsic attraction of nursing” and “immediacy of support on entry to nursing”. A total of 19 (0.2%) will not choose nursing if given a chance. The main reasons were “want to take another course”, “no time to spend with family” and “nursing is a stressful job”.

Conclusion: The findings of this study provided valuable information regarding motivating factors which attract the current generation to join nursing. It is of concern that items representing nurses’ image were not rated highly.

Keywords: career, extrinsic factors, intrinsic factors, nursing, student nurse.

Citation: IeJSME 2016 10(2): 3-10

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56026/imu.10.2.3

Authors: Wai Mun Tang, Abdul Rahman Idris.

ABSTRACT

Background: The escalating rate of private hospital nurses leaving their workplace raised serious concern among the stakeholders. Past studies had found that nursing practice environment was the key influence on nurses’ leaving intention, but studies examining the quality of nursing practice environment of private hospital settings was scarce and therefore warrant investigation to provide direction for interventions in addressing nursing turnover.

Objectives: To determine nurses’ perceptions towards nursing practice environment and whether there is any significant associations with nurses’ demographic variables.

Methods: Cross-sectional inferential survey study was conducted at four private hospitals in the Peninsular Malaysia using the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and 885 nurses participated in the study.

Results: Nurses rated their practice environment as favourable. However, items stated in “staffing and resource adequacy” subscale warrant serious attention because nurses rated poorly on item related to “enough staff to get the work done” (M = 2.37, SD = .81) and “enough registered nurses to provide quality patient care” (M = 2.41, SD = .82). Furthermore, t-test analyses found that nurses with educational sponsorship bond (p < .001), higher educational qualifications (p < .05), and have been working in the hospital since graduation (p < .001) were more likely to rate their practice environment lower.

Conclusion: Hospital administrators play significant role in sustaining and creating positive nursing practice environment in order to ensure steady supply of nurses to meet the challenging healthcare needs.

Keywords: nursing, practice, working, environment.

Citation: IeJSME 2016 10(2): 11-20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56026/imu.10.2.11

Authors: Chia Yen Low, QingJun Cheang, Pek Hong Lim.

ABSTRACT

Background: Clinical teaching is an important and essential teaching tool in the clinical area. Clinical teaching and learning is essential for the development and progression of experiential nursing knowledge.

Objectives: This research study aims to identify the perceptions and evaluations regarding clinical teaching among Year 2 and Year 3 nursing students, and also to find out if there are any differences in the perceptions and evaluations of the nursing students in regards to clinical teaching.

Methods: The formula for calculating the sample size was adopted from Morris (2005). The sample size obtained from the calculation with the confidence interval of 95%, was 132 participants. The participants were taken from a universal population of 142 diploma nursing students: 50 Year 2 nursing students and 92 Year 3 nursing students from the International Medical College in Selangor. The research instrument used was the Bedside Teaching Evaluation questionnaire that was adapted with approval by the writer from the University of Witwatersr and Department of Surgery (2008). A pilot study was conducted on 20 participants of Year 1 to Year 3 nursing students from the Assunta College of Nursing, with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability index of 0.89.

Results: The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics to find out the participant’s perceptions and evaluations regards clinical teaching; and also to compare the perceptions and evaluations between the two groups of nursing students from Years 2 and 3. The study findings showed that 46% (n=142) of the respondents had a good feedback on all the five (5) items under the perceptions of clinical teaching whereas 42% (n=142) of the respondents had a moderate view on all the five (5) items in the perceptions of clinical teaching sessions. With regards to the evaluation of clinical teaching sessions, 50% of the respondents had a moderate feedback on all the three (3) items in this section.

Conclusion: Most of the participants perceived and evaluated the clinical teaching as an important teaching-learning strategy in enhancing clinical learning.

Keywords: Perceptions, Evaluation, Nursing student, Clinical teaching, Nurses.

Citation: IeJSME 2016 10(2): 21-29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56026/imu.10.2.21

Authors: Raja Noriza Raja Ariffin, Muzalwana Abdul Talib @ Abdul Mutalib, Nurulhuda Mohd Satar, Hanira Hanafi, Azmah Othman, Makmor Tumin, Rustam Khairi Zahari.

ABSTRACT

Background: There is a lack of information on the practice of family planning among Muslim women in New York City in the United States of America (USA) [hereinafter known as “Muslim women residing in the United States” (MWRIU)], Tehran in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The limited figures on this issue are either outdated or mere estimates. The importance of sexual and reproductive health of Muslim women is expected to have massive effects on the social and economic progress of developing countries like the IRI and Malaysia. It is also expected to have imperative impacts on the attempts to empower the MWRIU community and enhance their health status to meet the national standards.

Objective: The study objective is to explore and compare the practice of family planning, namely on contraceptive use and abortion among Muslim women in 3 major cities of different countries.

Methodology: A survey of 379, 377 and 380 respondents from New York City, Tehran and Kuala Lumpur respectively was conducted in 2013 using self-administered questionnaires.

Results: There were significant differences in contraceptive and abortion practices across these countries (P<0.01). While a significant 86.6% of Iranian and 66.2% of the MWRIU used contraception, only 22.9% of the Malaysian women did so. For abortion, 13.6% of the MWRIU and 6.3% of the Malaysian respondents had abortion at least once; while only 22% of Iranians revealed their abortion history, totaling 32.1% of them who had abortion. Financial problems and having an unsupportive husband were among the major factors hindering their practice of healthy family planning.

Conclusion: Educational campaigns should be promoted to increase the awareness on the permissibility of family planning in Islam, as well as on sexual and reproductive rights.

Keywords: Barriers, comparison, contraception, family planning, Islam.

Citation: IeJSME 2016 10(2): 30-37

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56026/imu.10.2.30