Doctoral Degrees (Curriculum Studies)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Curriculum Studies) by Author "Butler, Mollie"

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    The development, implementation, validation and evaluation of a continuing professional development learning programme for nurses working in Saudi Arabia
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011-10) Butler, Mollie; Kapp, C. A.; Van der Merwe, T. D.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.;
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Saudi Arabian Government has implemented a nation-wide policy to prepare its people for the workforce and has directed that the Saudi Council for Health Specialties (SCHS) be established. Under the SCHS umbrella the Saudi Nursing Board (SNB) has been formed for the purpose of regulating the nursing profession. While Saudi Arabia has for many years been dependent on the international community for nurses, it is now establishing its own nursing workforce. One challenge for the SCHS and the SNB is to ensure that practice standards are developed, since ultimately nursing practice affects the quality of the patient services and patient health outcomes. The Saudi nursing profession has a responsibility to develop its social mandate and provide a full range of services to the Saudi public. Systems and education programmes are required for all aspects of the regulatory process, including continuing professional development. Effective regulation systems are not based on a “one size fits all” approach. Furthermore, nurses need to insist on high quality education to develop both basic and ongoing competence and should be able to depend on the profession for social status and credibility. The purpose of this research was to develop, implement, validate and evaluate a continuing professional development learning programme for nurses working in Saudi Arabia. The learning programme was built from a vision of nurses (regardless of country) engaging in lifelong learning for the purpose of ensuring quality patient care and population health. The development of a continuing professional development learning programme is an initial step in fulfilling the need for educational structures to support standards of practice. The overall outcome of the research was functional by nature in that the knowledge of continuing professional development in nursing was generated and applied to nursing practice in Saudi Arabia. In view of the nature of the question, a mixed methodology was selected. Although the qualitative aspect was dominant, both the qualitative and quantitative aspects were used simultaneously. The design included exploratory and descriptive aspects. Furthermore, the researcher employed qualitative methods to develop, implement and evaluate the provisional learning programme and quantitative methods to validate the provisional programme, resulting in a partial explanation of the research phenomenon. The primary theoretical drive was inductive, as the purpose was to discover rather than to test the learning programme contents. Botes’ Research Model and King’s Theory of Goal Attainment were utilised. They complemented each other, as they both support a comprehensive, dynamic scientific approach to learning (health) outcomes influenced by the quality of nursing practice and practice environment. The research, which was outcomes–based, was carried out in the context of quality patient care (population health) and nursing practice situated within the Saudi Arabian setting, where the nursing regulatory system is emerging. As the questionnaire mean ( X ) results revealed scores of 3.0 to 3.9, data saturation was achieved during the first round of the Delphi technique. Fourteen experts from six different countries were asked to validate the provisional learning programme, which was duly done. The programme was implemented in a tertiary research hospital in Saudi Arabia. Formative and summative evaluations were also conducted. The results of the implementation and evaluation affirmed the effectiveness of the learning programme. Boyer’s Model for Scholarship was used to triangulate the research findings. These results formed the basis for the recommendations and final summary. The five broad recommendations that emerged from the research were that nurses should take on self-regulatory and leadership responsibilities; that they should engage in continuing professional development collaboration; that the nursing profession’s self-regulation responsibilities be acknowledged; that a healthy (quality) workplace environment be ensured; and that further research be done in this field.