Assessment of Related Learning Experience: Basis for a Proposed Dedicated Education Unit Model (DEU)

Purpose: The purpose of the study is

to determine the assessment rating of nursing students (NSs), clinical

instructors (CIs) and staff nurses (SNs) on the current status of their RLE

program . Also, it attempted to identify the problems encountered in their RLE

program. The main intention of the study is to develop a Dedicated Education

Unit (DEU) model through convergence of quantitative and qualitative data.

Methods: Triangulation mixed method design was used in the study. A total of 105

Level IV NS were recruited as respondents through stratified random

sampling, while purposive sampling technique was used for 21 CI’s and 54 SN’s

of Ospital ng Sampalok (OSAM) as respondents. RLE Status Questionnaire

was employed to gather quantitative data. To find significant differences among

the assessment of three groups of respondents, ANOVA was used and Tukey

Kramer post hoc analysis was utilized to further explore the differences.

Simultaneous gathering of qualitative data was done through the used of Focus

Group Discussion (FGD). A Modified Rabiee’s Framework was utilized to

analyze the qualitative data.

Results: Among the significant findings were the following: The overall status of

RLE is Achieved with a weighted mean of 3.49. However, the utilization of

appropriate feedback mechanism and ratio of student to clientele based on the

objectives and the capacity of the student, obtained an Almost Achieved status ,

with weighted mean of 3.23 and 3.39 respectively. Except for the utilization of

appropriate feedback mechanism, the result of ANOVA test shows that there

are significant differences on the assessment of RLE status among the three

groups of respondent. Tukey Kramer ‘s post hoc analysis revealed that SNs

assessment is significantly different compared to the other two respondents

(NS’s and CI’s).

Through data analysis of the results of FGD, three main themes were

formulated: Institutional deficiencies, hospital deficiencies and how students are

being treated. Under the institutional deficiencies, problems emerged were the

following: Inconsistent RLE schedule, young and inexperienced CIs, theorypractice

gap, inadequate RLE hours. While the problems emerged under

hospital deficiencies were the following: Inadequate and outdated equipment,

simultaneous duty hours, inadequate space, absence of practice guidelines on

duties and responsibilities of SN and CI, healthcare team not following the ideal

set-up. On how students are being treated, the problems that surfaced were

the following: humiliated, intimidated and need for collaboration. After

quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed, results were converged and

grouped into: Relationship dimension, personal dimension, system maintenance

and change dimension. DEU model was created through adaptation of Moos

“Learning Environment theory”.

Conclusion: The study was able to provide empirical evidences on the short-comings

of the current RLE program, hopefully the recommended DEU Model (which

emphasizes a strong collaboration between the Learning Institution and Hospital,

to deliver the curriculum, and one of its innovation is a dedicated practice area for

student nurses in hospital setting} can be an answer to the identified RLE

problems.