The Development of a Construction of Life and Careers Skills Instrument Based on the 21st Century for Nursing Students at Praboromarajchanok Institute

Abstract

Background: Regarding teaching and learning management, the purpose of creating the nursing program is to produce effective professional nursing students who meet the healthcare service and system. Professional nurses are required with proper knowledge, innovation, information, media, and technology, including life and careers skills for working through current society. The research objectives were 1) To examine and validate the confirmatory factors, and 2) to study the results of the construction of a life skill instrument that is based on the 21^st Century in Life and careers skills. Methods: This study was a descriptive research design. Three hundred and sixty nursing students who are 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th-year students enrolled at Praboromarajachanok Institute by random sampling from 27 Boromrajonani College of Nursing in Thailand. The research instruments were the construction of life skills questionnaires comprising 5 elements. The research data were analyzed using frequency, mean, standard deviation, and CFA. Results: The results represented that the Model is related to the evidence-based 5 elements of life and careers skills. Furthermore, careers represented the standard estimated of an observed variable total of 40 variables between 0.75 – 0.91. Chi-square 781, df 617, relative Chi-square 1.26, p < .001, RMSEA 0.02, SRMR 0.020, TLI 0.98. Conclusion: Nursing educational institutions should play an important role in producing new registered nurses with soft skills as a qualification, especially focusing on Life and careers skills that can show that the nurse can confront any problem properly. The development of this instrument can guide nursing educators to assess nursing students to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Allowing them to improve their competency before graduation, especially can help nursing educators to prepare the nursing students for entering the nursing profession on the right track. It enables concrete monitoring of nursing students’ progress and can be used to regulate the curriculum and teaching methods. This also helps nursing educators to create a plan appropriately that supports supplementary curriculum activities for further educational development.