A description of nurse and midwifery educators' self-direction in learning in Lesetho

[摘要] It is crucial to describe self-direction of nurse and midwifery educators in learning inLesotho - especially now that Lesotho nurses training institutions have moved fromcontent-based curricula to competency-based curricula. The description of their selfdirectionwill help in making recommendations for support and maintenance of thecurriculum.Lesotho educators changed the content curriculum to competency-based curricula tosatisfy the Nurses and Midwives strategic plan of the Ministry of Health, which indicatesthat nurses need to have various skills to function independently in hard-to-reach areasof Lesotho, where other health professionals are few.The research question was: To what extent do nurse and midwifery educators in Lesothohave self-direction in learning? The study answered the question and therecommendations were made based on the study results. The measurement tool usedwas the Personal Responsibility Orientation-Self-Directed Learning Scale adopted andadapted. In measuring self-direction, two components and their factors were determined,namely self-development: preparedness to implement, which was adapted and originallyphrased as 'professional development: preparedness to implement'. Another factor wasthe educators' characteristic component.The design of the study comprised a quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design. Thedesign allowed the researcher to collect objective numerical data based on componentsmentioned as well as their context.The population of the study involved 75 nurse and midwifery educators from all six nursestraining institutions in Lesotho offering the Diploma in General Nursing, Diploma inMidwifery and the Bachelor's Degree in General Nursing and Midwifery. No sampling wasdone, meaning all 75 were eligible to participate but only 62 completed the questionnaire.A pilot study was done initially at one institution with a small number of educators.The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences atthe University of Free State, the Lesotho Ministry of Health, the Christian HealthAssociation of Lesotho, as well as individual nurses training institutions. The respondentswere issued an information leaflet, and on acceptance to participate, the selfadministeredquestionnaire was given to respondents by the fieldworkers.Coding of the questionnaires was done, after which data was captured and verified.Analysis was done by a biostatistician from the Department of Biostatistics at theUniversity of Free State. The spreadsheet was used, where numerical variables weresummarised. Categorical variables were summarised by frequencies and percentiles.Validity and reliability were ensured by employing experts in the field of higher educationto ensure face validity by checking that the questionnaire measured what it was intendedto measure. Adaption of the questionnaire by changing the word 'students' to 'educators'was done by a committee of experts. Reliability was not threatened because respondentscompleted similar questionnaires.Educators' self-direction was 82.40% and was excellent according to the scale.

[发布机构] University of the Free State