Background: Nurses are the “front line” staff in most
health systems and their contribution is recognised as
essential in meeting development goals and delivering
safe and effective care (ICN, 2007). Nurses are in high
demand not only in developed countries but also in
developing countries like Malaysia. However, more
than 70% of Malaysian hospitals currently do not have
adequate nursing staff. At least 174,000 nurses need to
be trained by 2020 to meet WHO’s nurse-to-patient
ratio of 1:200. The purpose of this study is to identify
the main factors that influence the nursing students’
decision to choose nursing as their career.
Method: A descriptive study guided by Self
Determination Theory was used for this study. A 29-
item questionnaire adapted from McCabe, Nowak
and Mullen (2005) was distributed to all students in a
nursing college (n=117).
Results: The five main reasons for choosing nursing
as a career were “ability to help others”, “training was
provided on the job”, “ability to work closely with
people”, “parental advice”, and “accommodation was
provided while training”. The top three main domains
that influenced the nursing students’ decision to choose
nursing as their career include “travel opportunities
of nursing”, “intrinsic attraction of nursing” and
“immediacy of support on entry to nursing”. A total of
19 (0.2%) will not choose nursing if given a chance.
The main reasons were “want to take another course”,
“no time to spend with family” and “nursing is a stressful
job”.
Conclusion: The findings of this study provided valuable
information regarding motivating factors which attract
the current generation to join nursing. It is of concern
that items representing nurses’ image were not rated
highly.
Introduction: Patient falls has been identified as one
of the major issues in today’s health care despite efforts
taken in preventing such incidents from happening
(Cox et al., 2014). Patient falls can be prevented by
using fall risk assessment tools such as Morse Fall Scale.
Morse Fall Scale was implemented in the year 2014 in a
private hospital in Malaysia but the patient fall rate did
not decrease.
Objective: The research objective is to determine the
nurses’ level of knowledge and competency in the use
of the Morse Fall Scale as an assessment tool in the
prevention of patient falls.
Method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional
research design was conducted with 100 registered nurses
from a private hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Universal
sampling technique was used to recruit the nurses.
Results: The registered nurses had a moderate level
of knowledge (M = 7.72; SD = 1.72) and competency
(scoring Morse Fall Scale, M = 4.75; SD = 1.26;
planning intervention, M = 13.19; SD = 1.89) in using
the Morse Fall Scale.
Conclusion: It is recommended that a review of the
training programme on the use of the Morse Fall Scale
be implemented in a more structured manner.
Introduction: Perioperative care is nursing care provided
by perioperative nurses to surgical patients during the
perioperative period. Its role is important as patients
especially those who had undergone coronary artery
bypass graft (CABG) surgery encounter high levels of
psychological and physical stress.
Objective: To determine the needs of CABG patients
throughout the perioperative period and how well those
needs were met.
Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive survey.
A total of 88 patients who had undergone coronary
artery bypass graft were recruited through census
sampling. The instrument which was adapted and used
with permission for this study was “Survey of Patient
Needs and Experiences during the Perioperative Period’
questionnaire (Davis et al., 2014).
Results: The patients perceived the perioperative
needs in the post-anaesthesia care unit area to be the
most important (M = 2.89, SD = 0.06). Perioperative
needs which were rated the highest for each of the
four time periods were “Having information about the
surgical procedure itself”, “Having your family member
or significant other with you in the pre-surgical area
complications”, “Being treated with respect and with
dignity by hospital personnel” and “Having your family
member or significant other visit you in the recovery
room”. Overall, patients perceived their needs during
perioperative period to be partly met (M = 2.73, SD =
0.07) with post-anaesthesia care unit area being rated
the highest (M = 2.81, SD = 0.06).
Conclusion: The results of this study highlighted the
perceived needs of patients undergoing coronary artery
bypass graft surgery throughout their perioperative
period. In order to improve the quality of perioperative
care for patients, nurses need to take into consideration
the important needs identified by the patients and
address the items which were not meeting the needs of
the patients.
Introduction: Critical thinking is an important element in nursing practice as well as being a vital educational outcome in any nursing curriculum. Critical thinking can influence the outcome of patient care and patient satisfaction. Objective: To determine the level of critical thinking ability among nursing students in two nursing colleges and its differences according to social demographic variables. Method: This was a cross sectional descriptive study design in which Critical Ability Scale for College Students were used to collect data from 158 nursing students in two private nursing colleges in Malaysia. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling. Results: The mean overall score for critical thinking ability was 70.6±6.98 with scores ranging from 56 to 89. The mean score of the subscales was 3.63±0.50 for intellectual, eagerness and health skepticism abilities, 3.63±0.42 for intellectual honesty ability, 3.61± 0.41 for prudence ability and 2.68±0.64 for objectivity ability. There are no significant differences between the independent variables and level of critical thinking ability. Conclusion: A high critical thinking ability score was reported with intellectual, eagerness and health skepticism being the highest subscale. The way forward requires academicians and clinicians to work together to ensure a transfer of knowledge and skills from the classroom to the clinical environment in order to develop and enhance the ability to think critically in making clinical decision and produce thinking nurses for the future.
Introduction: The prevalence of cataract surgeries
ranges from 7 to 12 million cases in 2000, 20 million
in 2010 and an estimation of 32 million cataract
surgeries annually by the year 2020 worldwide (WHO,
2015). Traditionally, the healthcare providers were
only able to give health education before the patient
is discharged from the healthcare setting while followup
can only be done when the patient comes for their
follow-up. But most of the patients will remain confused
or had forgotten about the post-operative care even
after receiving a comprehensive discharge preparation.
However, with the advancement of technologies in
this modern era, nurse-led telephone follow-up can be
considered as a tool to assist healthcare providers in the
follow-up care in Malaysia. On the same note, a private
eye specialist organisation with centres throughout
Malaysia, had taken the initiative to provide telephone
follow-up service for their patients with three main
objectives namely, to provide pre- and post-education
on cataract surgery, to detect early post cataract surgery
complications as well as to minimise anxiety among
their patients. However, till date no patient feedback
regarding the service was conducted.
Objective: The research objective for this study was to
determine patient’s level of satisfaction with the nurseled
telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at a private
eye specialist centre in Penang.
Method: A cross sectional quantitative descriptive study
design was used to study ninety post cataract patients in
a private hospital, Penang through universal sampling
method. A validated self-developed questionnaire based
on the three main objectives of the telephone follow-up
service was used for this study.
Results: Overall, the level of patient’s satisfaction with
nurse-led telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at
a private eye specialist centre in Penang was high (49.9
±4.85) especially for the health education provided
(4.18 ±0.21) followed by the effort to detect early
complications (4.16 ±0.12) and to minimise patients’
anxiety level (4.16 ±0.12).