This is a descriptive correlation analysis study which was conducted to provide basic data that could contribute to the preparation of guidelines for the development of education program on infant developmental care and performance of quality nursing ...
This is a descriptive correlation analysis study which was conducted to provide basic data that could contribute to the preparation of guidelines for the development of education program on infant developmental care and performance of quality nursing by analyzing competency, performance, importance, and obstructive factors of the infant developmental care of nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit.
The study subjects included 51 nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit and pediatric cardiac surgery intensive care unit in the S general hospital located in Seoul, and the data were collected through survey and focus group interview from March 22 to April 5, 2017.
The questionnaire for infant developmental care competency was modified from the premature baby developmental support care competency tool developed by Jeong soon Kim(2015) to be suitable for our study and the validity of its contents was verified. The questionnaires for the performance and importance of infant developmental care were developed by referencing relevant literature to collect data, and the questions were modified after consulting with a professor of pediatric nursing and the validity of their contents was verified. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. From the focus group interview, obstructive factors of infant developmental care were examined and analyzed with the content analysis method.
The results of this study are as follows.
1. The competency of infant developmental care of the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit was 49.00±4.37 out of a total score of 64 and 3.06±.27 based on a 4 point scale.
2. The performance of infant developmental care of the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit was 39.39±3.70 out of a total score of 52 and 3.03±.28 based on a 4 point scale. The importance of infant developmental care was 43.90±4.36 out of a total score of 52 and 3.37±.34 based on a 4 point scale. Hence, importance showed higher scores than performance.
3. Competency of infant developmental care of the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit according to general characteristics showed significant differences in academic degrees (t=-2.330, p=.024), total clinical experience (F=5.194, p=.004), and clinical experience in the pediatric intensive care unit (F=4.678, p=.006). Performance and importance of infant developmental care according to general characteristics did not show statistically significant variables.
4. The correlations among competency, performance, and importance of infant developmental care of the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit showed that competency and performance (r=.362, p=.009) as well as performance and importance (r=.408, p=.003) had statistically significant difference. However, competency and importance did not show statistical significance (r=.183, p=.198).
5. The obstructive factors of infant developmental care of the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit were personal factors (lack of knowledge, education, and experience), environmental factors (limited visit time, safety issues, lack of equipment), political factors (issues of insurance and fees, lack of manpower, lack of time caused by workload), and other factors (pressure of new nurses, lack of understanding by other medical personnel).
These results indicated correlations that the nurses with high competency of infant developmental care had high performance, and the performance of infant developmental care increased as its importance increased. Therefore, to increase the performance of infant developmental care, nursing guidelines for infant developmental care that can be used during the performance of everyday nursing are required in addition to continuous and effective education programs. In addition, the work system of infant developmental care needs to be reevaluated based on the obstructive factors so that quality nursing can be performed.