Inservice Training in Nursing

OPSOMMING Navorsing is gedoen om die stand van indiensopleiding vir verpleegkundiges in die Witwatersrand-gebied te beskryf. Deur 'n literatuurstudie en onderhoude is agt kriteria vir geslaagde indiensopleiding geidentifiseer. Die navorsing is uitge-voer met behulp van 'n vraelys wat op grond van die agt kriteria saamgestel is. Verskeie probleemareas in indiensopleiding is geidentifiseer op grond waarvan verskeie aanbevelings gemaak word. Die belangrikste hiervan is dat meer aandag aan die beplanning van programme gegee moet word asook aan die toepassing van die beginsels van algemene en volwasse onderrig. Die agt gei'dentifiseerde kri­ teria kan ook as 'n verwysingsraamwerk vir toekomstige beplanning van indiensopleidingsprogramme vir verpleegkundiges dien.


INTRODUCTION
Inservice training in nursing is seen as a necessary com ponent to help the professional nurse to keep up to date on the most recent develop m ents in nursing and to be able to m anage the dem ands of nursing practice.
In this article a sum m ary will be given of the rep o rt on a research project executed in 1983 and 1984.Included are a statem ent of the problem , objectives of the research project, a reference to the literature review with th e focus on criteria identified for inservice training in nursing, m ethod of investigation, results, conclusions and recom m en dations.
plem entation of patient care.The nurse's w ork satisfaction is also re lated to the m easure in which she/he is able to deliver quality patient care.

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT
The main objective of this study is to give a description of inservice training program m es for profess ional nurses in the W itw atersrand area on the basis of criteria identi fied.
O ther objectives derived from the main objective are: -to give recom m endations and criteria for inservice training in nursing using the results of this study as guidelines and -to undertake in-depth investiga tion into aspects that are re vealed as possible problem areas by the study.

LITERATURE REVIEW: INSERVICE TRAINING IN NURSING
In the first instance the concepts continuing education and inservice training will be distinguished from each other.C riteria which have been identified for the developm ent of effective inservice training p ro gram m es will be given.

Definitions of continuing edu cation and inservice training in nursing
Continuing education includes all those educational activities which take place after .  . . . (M ellish, 1978: 11 & 12).
It is im p o rtan t to identify definite criteria for effective inservice train ing through a literatu re review to be able to ascertain th e status of inser vice training.
F ocu s on b etter fu n ction in g o f the organ isation (Del B ueno & Kelly, 1980: 12-17).

METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
A questionnaire was used in a survey to determ ine the status of inservice training of professional nurses in the W itw atersrand area.
The eight criteria for inservice training were used in com piling the questionnaire.A fter a pilot study the final questionnaire was design ed in accordance with the req u ire m ents for compiling a questionnaire (Cilliers, 1965: 93;Nel. 1978: 105).The questionnaire has an A section for persons who present inservice training and a B section for persons who receive inservice training.Most questions required an answer on a four point discrim ination scale (Likert, 1932: 14) or consisted of multiple choice or yes or no choice items.M ethods w ere used to ex clude areas of erro r, for exam ple, control and negative item s w ere in cluded in the questionnaire (Van der W alt, 1970: 114-116).
The following autobiographical inform ation is requested at the be ginning of the questionnaire: place of w ork, population group, langu age in which inservice training is presented, area w here currently working, qualifications and w hether busy with further form al studies.
Section A has twenty-tw o and Section B, eleven questions.The questionnaire is bilingual and the inform ation obtained was processed by com puter.
The investigation was lim ited to the W itw atersrand area.In o rd er to include all the different areas of nursing practice (general, psy chiatric and com m unity nursing and midwifery) professional nurses in volved in health services of the T ra n s v a a l P ro v in c ia l A d m in is tration, D epartm ent of H ealth and W elfare and local authorities were included in the study.
Inform ation about the num ber of professional nurses w ho w orked in the different organisations was ob tained through personal interview s with the senior nursing service m an agers.The num bers involved are shown in Table 1.The questionnaire was given to the whole target population (pro fessional nurses) in the abovem en tioned organisations.The nursing service m anagers of the organis ations involved were responsible for handing the questionnaires to the professional nurses.The num ber of questionnaires retu rn ed was 1 421 -477 nurses com pleted p art A and 1 000 nurses com pleted part B.

RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT
The data obtained from the ques tionnaires was processed with the aid of the SPSS com puter pro gramme.
The results were given in fre quency tables under the headings of the eight criteria for effective inser vice training.
In processing of the results corre lation statistics w ere not used be cause the objective of the study was to give a description of inservice training of nurses in the W itwatersrand area.

DISCUSSION OF THE RE SULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The results of the research project give a broad overview of inservice training of nurses in the W itwatersrand area.It is im portant that no correlations should be m ade be tween results.Such com parison will be invalid because the num ber of respondents in various sections and organisations differs.
The results serve as guidelines for further in-depth research about as pects which are identified as poss ible problem areas.These areas will be discussed briefly.
Questionnaire A: Inservice trainers It is im portant th at it should be brought to nurses' attention that quality care can bring about costeffectiveness and th at cost effec tiveness can not be seen as an iso lated factor.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recom m endations about inservice training in nursing are m ade using the results and con clusions discussed above as guide lines.

CONCLUSION
This research described inservice training in the W itw atersrand area.
In order to provide this description eight criteria for effective inservice training were identified through a literature and interview s with representatives of o th er occupa tional groups.
A questionnaire was com piled based on the eight criteria for inser vice training.Section A has ques tions for inservice trainers and Sec tion B has questions for nurses who receive inservice training, to ascer tain how they experience such train ing.R esults derived from the ques tionnaires were processed with the aid of a SPSS com puter program m e into frequency tables.The fre quency tables w ere presented under the headings of the eight criteria for in se rv ic e training, providing a broad overview of inservice training of nurses in the W itw atersrand area.
Possible problem areas identified in the results w ere discussed and recom m endations m ade about the approach to inservice training in nursing.
The most im portant recom m en dations are that m ore attention should be given to the m anner of planning inservice training and m ore consideration should be given to the principles of adult and gen eral education in the presentation of the program m es.The eight crite ria can serve as a fram e of reference for future planning of inservice training program m es in nursing.
The results of this research study can also serve as a basis for future intensive research into the problem areas in inservice training which were identified.
The abovem entioned eight cri teria for inservice training form a fram e of reference w hereby inser vice training program m es may be assessed.

: Persons (nurses) who receive inser vice training (inservice train ees)
• The focus of inservice trainers in planning active participation of nurses in education and training a r e p r a c t i s i n g o f p r a c t i s e (61,5 % ) and group discussions (64,8 % ) while role play Q u estio n n aire B