Effects of teaching clinical practice by using portfolio of nursing students on competency in nursing administration.

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research was conductedto investigate the impacts of using a portfolio asa learning tool in the nursing practicum course onnursing studentsû competencies in nursingadministration. Subjects were 60 fourth-yearnursing students at Ratchathani University, Udon ThaniCampus. A simple random sampling technique was employed to recruit study subjects.  A randomassignment was completed to allocate 30 subjectseach to the experimental or the control group.The experimental group received a portfolio.The control group received the usual teaching technique.The intervention lasted over a four-week period.After the intervention, nursing students completeda self evaluation package and supervising registerednurses (RNs) evaluated studentsû outcomes.An evaluation package comprised of a teachingplan and a student manual in constructing a portfolio.Information about competencies in nursingadministration was collected using a questionnairethis author constructed. Data analysis was doneto obtain frequencies, percentages, mean scores,standard deviations and t-tests. Results arethe followings:1. The nursing administration competencymean scores assessed by the RNs and nursingstudents from the experimental group werestatistically significantly higher than those of the controlgroup (p < .01)2. After project implementation, the nursingadministration competency mean scores significantlyincreased among students in the experimental group(p < .001)