Development of Pre-Graduation Program for Entry into Professional Nursing Practice

Abstract

Pre-graduation preparation was very important for new bachelors in increasing their self-confidence and readiness for entry into professional practice in the midst of rapid change of technologies and knowledge-based society. This study aimed to develop and evaluate pre-graduation program effectiveness for entry into professional nursing practice. It involved three steps: program development, program trial and evaluation of developed program.

Firstly, integrated reviews and Rungnoei’s model (2010) were used as a guideline for developing 46-hour pregraduation program.

Secondly, a one group pre-test post-test design was used in program trial with a group of 60 senior nursing students. It had 10 sessions of preparation activities (30 hours).

Lastly, an 8-month follow-up has been made (2 hours each month or total of 16 hours) for implementing and evaluating the developed program. The evaluation was made at the end of the program (total of 46 hours) with 2 phases: 1 and 8 month (s) after the implementation. This study also reported the program effectiveness after one-month implementation.

It was revealed that total post-program mean of nursing students’ perception of self-development and professional life planning competencies was at a “good” level ( x̄ =4.14) and higher than pre-program one at statistically significant level of .01 (p=.000).

Such findings could be a guideline for pre-graduation preparation. The researcher would examine the program effectiveness in longer periods (8 months) in light of increased self-development and professional life planning competencies and program satisfaction at the end of trial.