Desirable Competencies of Professional Nurses in the New Normal, Health Unit under the Ministry of Public Health, Area Health 2

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study desirable competencies of professional nurses in the new normal, health unit under the Ministry of Public Health, Area Health 2, and to compare desirable competencies in the new normal of professional nurses working in primary, secondary, and tertiary health units. The research was conducted among a sample of 420 professional nurses who had been employed in the health units under the Ministry of Public Health, Area Health 2, for over a year. The participants were selected using a multi-stage random sampling method. The research instrument was the Desirable Competencies Questionnaire for Professional Nurses in the New Normal, which was examined for its content verified by three experts with a questionnaire reliability of 0.98. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA and multiple comparison by LSD method.The research results showed that the desirable competencies of professional nurses in the new normal, health unit under the Ministry of Public Health, Area Health 2 consisted of 11 competencies, most of them were at the highest level, including morality and ethics, law, nursing and midwifery practices, professional attributes, leadership, management and quality development, communication, relationship, technology and information, as well as society. The only competency that presented at a high level was academic and research. There were top three competencies with the highest average such as, morality and ethics (X^-=4.75, S.D.=0.41), relationship (X^-=4.55, S.D.=0.51), and professional attributes (X^-=4.53, S.D.=0.50). The lowest average competency was academic and research (X^-=4.14, S.D.=0.69). When comparing the desirable competencies in the new normal across primary, secondary, and tertiary health units, the overall findings revealed a statistically significant difference at the .05 level. The competency that was management and quality development, academic and research, communication, relationship, technology and information, as well as society. However, no significant difference was observed between secondary and tertiary health units.