Do Thi Ha
Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Vietnam
Title: How nurses in hospital context in Vietnam learn to improve their own nursing competency: An ethnographic study
Biography
Biography: Do Thi Ha
Abstract
Competency of nurses is vital to safe nursing practice as well as essential component to drive quality of nursing services. There exists little up to date information concerning how nurses employing in hospital context in Vietnam learn to improve their own nursing competency. Objectives: to investigate the ways Vietnamese nurses practicing in clinical settings had learned to improve their own nursing competency. Methods: A qualitative study, ethnographic method, comprised of the participant-observation, in-depth interview, and focus group discussion with multidisciplinary groups of nurses employing in Cho Ray hospital, Vietnam, managers/administrators, nurse teachers, medical doctors, other health care professionals, patients and family members which derived from purposeful sampling technique. Content analysis was used for data analysis. Findings: The two essential ways of learing in order to develop nursing competency among nurses were identified by the participants through the data collection in this study, including formal and informal learning. Nurses have received their formal training in nursing education programs in nursing schools after graduation to upgrade their nursing professonal level was identified as formal learning. Informal learning identified by the participnats in this study included continuing nursing education, learning from working experience, learning from daily reflective process, and coaching and mentoring. Conclusions: The findings from this study provide valuable information and understanding of the ways Vietnamese nurses working in hospital context have learned to improve individual competency. It would assist to establish an effectively and appropriately strategy in an effort of enhancing nursing competency among nurses in Vietnam.