The author presented the situation of staff performance assessment at Ministry of Health and provided some solutions to improve this performance such as grasping principles leader and manager performance assessment; renovating of assessment (about ethical and political virtue, lifestyle, professional level, ability of management and leading, results of activities in his section, his responsibilities and tasks); choosing methods of assessment (based on the criteria and score, the contracts, and the judgments); the duration for organizing of comment, assessment, and grading staffs; improving system and process of leader and manager performance assessment
Medical Staff ; Medical Staff, Hospital ; Nursing Staff

Background: The crop of novice nurses who are currently employed is a product of flexible learning who had limited contact hours with actual patients, which is contrary to those who graduated from traditional learning modalities. Hence, it is essential to evaluate how the impact of flexible learning modality has affected the practice preparedness levels of novice nurses in the hospital setting. Objective: This study aimed to determine the level of practice preparedness and its associated factors among novice nurses who work in private hospitals. Methods: The study utilized a cross-sectional survey design. Data was gathered from a total enumeration of ninetyfour novice staff nurses who graduated from the flexible learning curriculum and are currently employed in private hospitals in Baguio City and La Trinidad. The tool used was a questionnaire in two parts. Part 1 consisted of questions related to demographic information and factors related to practice preparedness, and part 2 included the Nursing Practice Readiness Scale, with validity and reliability scores of >0.924 and 0.90, respectively. The data was analyzed using the SPSS V27 trial version. The protocol was approved by the Saint Louis University Research Ethics Committee. Results: Findings reveal that more novice nurses in private hospitals perceived themselves as well-prepared across all domains of practice preparedness: “Collaborative Interpersonal Relationship” (n = 94, 100%); “Patient Centeredness” (n = 92, 97.90%); “Self-regulation” (n = 90, 95.70%); “Clinical Judgment and Nursing Performance” (n = 78, 83.00%); and “Professional Attitudes” (n = 76, 80.90%). There is a significant association between practice preparedness and the following factors: “Attended more than one Training/Seminars per year” (p = 0.02), “Graduated from Private Schools” (p = 0.03), and “Assigned in Regular Wards” (p = 0.05).On the other hand, no significant association was found between practice preparedness and the following factors: “Sex” (p = 0.61) and “Membership in Professional Organizations” (p = 0.73). Conclusion In agreement with existing studies, practice preparedness is multifactorial. However, what this study contributes are new factors that are favorable in making novice nurses more confident in performing their roles and responsibilities. These include being a graduate of private schools, being assigned to regular wards, and attending professional training/seminars more than once annually. Advantageously, these factors that promote practice preparedness are modifiable.
nurses ; nursing staff, hospital ; hospitals, private

BACKGROUND

The crop of novice nurses who are currently employed is a product of flexible learning who had limited contact hours with actual patients, which is contrary to those who graduated from traditional learning modalities. Hence, it is essential to evaluate how the impact of flexible learning modality has affected the practice preparedness levels of novice nurses in the hospital setting.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to determine the level of practice preparedness and its associated factors among novice nurses who work in private hospitals.

METHODS

The study utilized a cross-sectional survey design. Data was gathered from a total enumeration of ninety-four novice staff nurses who graduated from the flexible learning curriculum and are currently employed in private hospitals in Baguio City and La Trinidad. The tool used was a questionnaire in two parts. Part 1 consisted of questions related to demographic information and factors related to practice preparedness, and part 2 included the Nursing Practice Readiness Scale, with validity and reliability scores of >0.924 and 0.90, respectively. The data was analyzed using the SPSS V27 trial version. The protocol was approved by the Saint Louis University Research Ethics Committee.

RESULTS

Findings reveal that more novice nurses in private hospitals perceived themselves as well-prepared across all domains of practice preparedness: “Collaborative Interpersonal Relationship” (n=94, 100%); “Patient Centeredness” (n=92, 97.90%); “Self-regulation” (n=90, 95.70%); “Clinical Judgment and Nursing Performance” (n=78, 83.00%); and “Professional Attitudes” (n=76, 80.90%). There is a significant association between practice preparedness and the following factors: “Attended more than one Training/Seminars per year” (p=0.02), “Graduated from Private Schools” (p=0.03), and “Assigned in Regular Wards” (p=0.05). On the other hand, no significant association was found between practice preparedness and the following factors: “Sex” (p=0.61) and “Membership in Professional Organizations” (p=0.73).

CONCLUSION

In agreement with existing studies, practice preparedness is multifactorial. However, what this study contributes are new factors that are favorable in making novice nurses more confident in performing their roles and responsibilities. These include being a graduate of private schools, being assigned to regular wards, and attending professional training/seminars more than once annually. Advantageously, these factors that promote practice preparedness are modifiable.

Human ; Nurses ; Nursing Staff, Hospital ; Hospitals, Private

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to understand nurses' experience after the computerization of nursing care as a part of hospital information systems and to explore the change in nursing care time. METHODS: This study used a qualitative approach. The subjects were ten nurses by purposeful snowball sampling. In-depth interview was performed. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using qualitative theme analysis. RESULTS: Nurses took into account the computerization as a 'benefit'. Their experiences after computerization were categorized into process and outcome impact. The emerged themes in nursing care process were 'accuracy', 'rapidness', and 'time saving in indirect nursing care'. Those in nursing care outcome included 'leisure', 'satisfaction', 'burden', and 'threatening privacy'. In addition, nurses' personal characteristics was the most important factor affecting the efficient use of saved time due to decrease of indirect nursing time to increase direct nursing care. CONCLUSION: Maximizing the positive impact of computerization requires redesign of nursing job description and work pattern, and education of efficient time management for individual nurse.
Education ; Hospital Information Systems* ; Humans ; Job Description ; Nursing Care* ; Nursing Staff ; Nursing* ; Time Management

PURPOSE: Nursing research is recognized as an essential basis for the continuous development of the scientific nursing knowledge and practice. An understanding of the barriers and attitudes to research among nurses is important to improve clinical nursing research activities. METHOD: Data were collected from nurses at a general hospital, located in D city, using a self-reported questionnaire, from March 15th to April 4th, 2003, and 133 questionnaires were used for the analyses. A 5 pointscale instrument was used to measure barriers and attitudes towards nursing research, with a Cronbach's alpha of .85 and .89, respectively. RESULTS: Nurses had limited experience in research and were not well prepared to conduct it. Lack of experience, training and time were the major barriers for conducting research. However, the nurses had positive attitudes toward research. There was a difference in barriers (t=2.68, p=.02) and research attitudes (t=-2.74, p=.00) according to the nurses' position. Also, the nurses' research experience influenced research attitudes (t=-3.27, p=.00). The degree of research preparation (F=6.98, p=.00) had an effect on the attitudes toward nursing research but not on the barriers. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need to promote both the ability and environment for clinical nurses to actively participate in research. As the majority of nurses had little experience and low confidence in research and perceived many barriers, this promotion can be accomplished by enhancing their confidence in research through continuing education and by gradually eliminating the barriers to research.
Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; *Nursing Research ; Korea ; Humans ; Female ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Analysis of Variance

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop performance measure indicators for hospital nursing units based on a Balanced Scorecard (BSC). METHOD: This study was a methodological study. The development process consisted of 3 stages. The first stage was setting up strategies for nursing units from a nursing department's mission and vision. The second stage was developing performance measure indicators after a validity check. The third stage was modifying developed performance measure indicators and classifying them. RESULTS: 7 strategies were set up according to 4 perspectives of a BSC. 15 performance measure indicators for hospital nursing units were developed, and the indicators were divided into 8 independent indicators and 7 shared indicators according to the degree of performance responsibility. In addition, they were classified into two groups, 7 leading indicators and lagging indicators. CONCLUSIONS: The result of this study suggests that performance measure indicators for hospital nursing units provide a framework and method for nursing organizations' performance management. Also, the developed indicators are expected to provide valuable information for successful organization management.
*Quality Indicators, Health Care ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*standards ; Nursing Care/*standards ; Humans

OBJECTIVETo investigate the occupational stressors and modifiers of pediatricians and nurses in order to find the measurements for control of the job stress.

METHODS427 pediatricians and nurses working in five hospitals of a city served as subjects. Of them, the staff in section of pharmacy and toll offices in each hospital mentioned above served as control group. The General Job Stress Questionnaire was used to investigate the job stress by self-assessment.

RESULTSThe scores of job demand, job risk, drug using, daily job stress, positive feelings, patient A behavior, physical environment and feeling balance in pediatricians and nurses were higher than those of control group, but the scores of job-person conflict, environmental control, technology utility, mental health, responsibility on things were lower than those of control group (P<0.05). The points of job future, job locus of control, self-esteem, job satisfaction, job load variance, depression in nurses were higher than those of pediatricians, and non-work activities, job risk and daily life stress were lower than those of doctors (P<0.05). The main affecting factors on job strain of pediatric staff included job monotony, higher job demand, more non-work job, lower job control, more job risk, job future ambiguous, poorer social support, lower job locus control and lower self-esteem.

CONCLUSIONThe stress degree of pediatric staff is higher than that of controls. The pediatricians have more job stress than that of nurses. The main stressors of pediatric staff are job monotony, higher job demand, more non-worker activity, lower job control, higher job risk and ambiguous job future. The main modifiers are good social support, external job locus of control and higher self-esteem.

Adult ; Burnout, Professional ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Staff, Hospital ; psychology ; Nursing Staff, Hospital ; psychology ; Pediatrics ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: This methodological research was designed to develop performance evaluation key indicators (PEKIs) for management by objectives (MBO) and to estimate their weights for hospital nurses. METHODS: The PEKIs were developed by selecting preliminary indicators from a literature review, examining content validity and identifying their level of importance. Data were collected from November 14, 2007 to February 18, 2008. Data set for importance of indicators was obtained from 464 nurses and weights of PEKIs domain was from 453 nurses, who worked for at least 2 yr in one of three hospitals. Data were analyzed using chi-square-test, factor analysis, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process. RESULTS: Based upon Content Validity Index of .8 or above, 61 indicators were selected from the 100 preliminary indicators. Finally, 40 PEKIs were developed from the 61 indicators, and categorized into 10 domains. The highest weight of the 10 domains was customer satisfaction, which was followed by patient education, direct nursing care, profit increase, safety management, improvement of nursing quality, completeness of nursing records, enhancing competence of nurses, indirect nursing care, and cost reduction, in that order. CONCLUSION: PEKIs and their weights can be utilized for impartial evaluation and MBO for hospital nurses. Further research to verify PEKIs would lead to successful implementation of MBO.
Adult ; *Employee Performance Appraisal ; Humans ; Models, Nursing ; Nursing Evaluation Research ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*standards ; Task Performance and Analysis

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop a performance measurement scale for nurses in the hospital setting and to test the reliability and validity of the scale. METHODS: This study was conducted in three phases including an application of conceptual framework, development of scale items, and test of validity and reliability of the scale. In order to test validity and reliability, data was collected from 1,966 nurses who work in twenty eight hospitals nation-wide. The data was analyzed by the SAS 8.0 program using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and reliability coefficients. RESULTS: The Performance measurement scale consisted of 4 factors which included competency, attitude, willingness to improve, and application of nursing process, and a total of 17 items. The Four factors explained 63.45% of the total variance, and Cronbach's alpha of the scale was .92. CONCLUSION: The performance measurement scale developed by this study is a reliable and valid instrument that is utilized effectively to evaluate the performance of hospital nurses. Furthermore, it could be used as a steping stone to assess educational needs of nurses, develop professionalism among nurses, and improve quality of nursing care in the hospital setting.
Adult ; *Employee Performance Appraisal ; Female ; Humans ; Models, Nursing ; *Nursing Evaluation Research ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*standards ; Reproducibility of Results ; Task Performance and Analysis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine anger-expression patterns and their association with state and trait anger and physical and psychological health status in health care workers. METHOD: Four hundred and forty eight nurses, physicians and technicians from a large medical center completed standardized questionnaires of anger, anger-expression patterns and mood. They also had blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and body mass index measured during their annual physical examinations. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square and ANOVA. RESULTS: Subjects showed two major clusters of anger-expression patterns: anger-control and anger-in/out. Subjects with the anger-in/out pattern reported higher state and trait anger and more anxiety, depression and fatigue than subjects with the anger-control pattern. Physical health indicators, however, were not significantly different between the two clusters of anger-expression patterns. CONCLUSION: Anger-expression patterns are associated with psychological health status but not with physical health status. Anger-expression patterns, however, need to be examined over time to assess their long-term effects on the physical and psychological health status in future studies.
Adult ; *Anger ; Expressed Emotion ; Female ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Medical Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; Middle Aged ; Models, Nursing ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology