Professional Nurses’ Needs in Studying in Master of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Program, Upper Southern Thailand

Abstract

This descriptive study aims to describe the educational needs of professional nurses in furthering their studies and the support of their administrators for their continued education as well as the direction and format of the curricula of the graduate program in psychiatric nursing and mental health. This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative data from 378 registered nurses (n=378) and 76 administrators (n=76) selected from those working in Southern Thailand. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data collected from those who utilize these graduates, namely, administrators, those receiving health care. Furthermore, in-depth interviews were conducted with 9 participants in order to obtain data that was analyzed using content analysis.

The findings of this study indicated that 65.61% registered nurses wished to continue their studies while 86.84% of their administrators were in favor of nurses under their authority furthering their studies in a graduate program in order to enhance their capabilities focusing on Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) and emphasizing psychiatric and mental health in the community through an intensive study program requiring a thesis. Studies outside of working hours would be preferable than studies during the work day. The results of this research study could be utilized as basic data in developing a new program or in improving existing curricula of a graduate nursing program in psychiatric nursing and mental health in order to alleviate the shortage of psychiatric nurses in the Thai health care system.