Perspectives of the MOH Hospitals' Nurses about the Impact of Training Programs on their Performance
Date
2011-04-18
Authors
Nayef Ibrahim Ouda
نايف ابراهيم عودة
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
Universally, the area of health care delivery is highly affected by training. The need for
training programs for hospitals' nurses is greater today than ever before in order to keep
them exposed for the state-of-the art techniques in this field. The overall objective of this
study is exploring the impact of nursing training programs on nurse's performance in Gaza
hospitals in order to assess the effectiveness of these programs.
This study is a descriptive, analytical cross-sectional one, conducted on a sample of 258
nurses selected from the three major general MOH hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The
participants were selected through a systematic stratified sampling method in proportional
to the total number of nurses in each of these three hospitals. The study covered nurses
who had participated and those who did not participate in training programs to assess the
impacts of the provided training programs. Also, the performance appraisal forms were
reviewed and total scores were obtained. Data was collected through a self-administered
questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. The research was conducted during
the period from June through September 2010. Response rate was 81.5%. Data was
entered and analyzed using the SPSS program.
The study revealed that males constituted 58.6 % while females constituted 41.4 % of the
sample. More than half of the respondents were less than 35 years old, 26.7% of them aged
between 40-50 years. Half of the respondents were holding bachelor degree in nursing;
5.2% of the respondents were holding Master degree. The study findings revealed that
respondents who participated in training course/s represented 39.0% of the total
respondents. The general reactions of the trainees who participated in the provided
training programs were positive (p-value less than 0.05). Around 70 % of the respondents
reported having training programs at their hospitals while the remaining did not have.
The Performance of those who participated in training programs did not improve at
significant level (Mean in 2008 was 81.4, Mean in 2009 was 82.2), while the performance
of those who did not participate in training programs has improved at significant level
training (Mean in 2008 was 81.1, Mean in 2009 82.3). This implies that the provided
training didn t improve trainees performance. There were no statistically significant
variations in perceptions about the impact of training in reference to a particular hospital.
Results showed statistically significant differences in gender as males showed more
willingness to participate in training programs than their females counterparts (P value
0.01). Similarly, nurses aged less than 30 years were more motivated to take training than
their older colleagues with statistically significant differences among the two groups (P
value 0.01). Findings also showed inverse relationship between level of education and the
desire to undertake further training courses. The majority of participants were uncertain
about the appropriateness of the selection process for the training program (54%).
The study recommended that policy makers at MOH should design more effective training
programs and to pay more attention to follow up and monitoring the impact of training
programs. Evaluation of the impact of the training programs should be given a priority
and training should be assessed in reference to performance.