Educational Needs of Staff-Development Nurses in Japan
Abstract
Mami Onishi, Atsuko Watanabe, and Katsuya Kanda
Background: Staff development for hospital nurses is a critical issue in the provision of quality patient care. Staffdevelopment nurses should have expertise in education in order to ensure its effectiveness. However, these nurses in Japan often do not have specialized training in this role. This study aimed to investigate the current status of work and educational needs of staff-development nurses in Japan with the purpose of designing a staff-development nurse educational program.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 281 randomly selected, certified nurse administrators. The questionnaire design was based on the standards of continuing education and group interviews, and was concerned with the roles of staff-development nurses and accepted competencies for staff-development nurses.
Results: Responses were obtained from 101 nurse administrators, 60% of whom worked in a hospital with a fulltime staff-development nurse. Eighty percent of the participants responded that their staff-development nurses were actively engaged in assessing nurses’ needs and in planning, operating, and evaluating educational programs. Data on the perceptions of unit managers and nurses were frequently used in educational needs assessment and the evaluation of the educational program’s effectiveness. Objective data, such as quality indicators, were not used often. Participants perceived that staff-development nurses should strengthen the roles of the educational needs assessment of the learner and the evaluation of programs. The most frequently mentioned competencies gained through specialized education were analytical thinking, data analysis, and planning.
Conclusion: The educational goal of staff-development nurses is systematic management of nurse-educational programs based on analysis and consideration of both subjective and objective data.