Finalist Diploma Nursing Extension Students' Self-Efficacy to Use the Nursing process to Care for Patients in Central Uganda

Abstract

Background: In order to improve skills and patient care outcomes, Ugandan nurses progress through higher education levels, including certificate, diploma, bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs. As nurses advance to higher levels, they are expected to use the nursing process to deliver quality, individualized patient care. It is not known whether diploma nursing extension students are confident in using the nursing process to care for patients. Objectives: To assess final semester diploma nursing extension students’ self-efficacy to use the nursing process during patient care and determine the self-efficacy processes that influenced their learning of the nursing process. Methods: A quantitative approach using a cross-sectional descriptive design was used. A private, non-profit organization connected to a regional referral teaching hospital in Central Uganda served as the study's site. Forty-five final-semester diploma nursing extension students were chosen by means of consecutive sampling. Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory served as the basis for the self-developed questionnaire. The instrument's reliability was confirmed by its Cronbach's alpha of 0.813. Results: Descriptive statistics were the main emphasis for the SPSS software (20) used to examine the data. Eighty two percent of participants were identified as female, and 76% of them were between the ages of 20 and 29. Sixty-nine percent had one to four years’ experience, working in hospitals. In this study, 80% reported moderate levels of self-efficacy, 16% reported low levels, and 4% reported no self-efficacy. In describing the processes that influenced their development of self-efficacy, participants predominately depended on performance accomplishments (mean 3.1) to develop their self-efficacy. Vicarious learning (mean 2.2), verbal encouragement (mean 2.0) and emotional states (mean 1.8) had less influence on them. Conclusion: In general, Ugandan finalist diploma nursing extension students have a moderate level of self-efficacy when it comes to using the nursing process. The moderate mean score, however, suggests that there is potential for improvement. In order to guarantee efficient patient care and meet Uganda's changing healthcare needs, educational techniques should concentrate on building self-efficacy, especially through performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, verbal encouragement and emotional states. Keywords: Nursing education advancement, self-efficacy, nursing process, Uganda, diploma nursing students, patient care.