Background
The subject of continuous quality of nursing education programme is an extremely sensitive issue worldwide, particularly in Philippines where high number of their trained registered nurses are exported to both developed and developing countries. The assessment of quality of nursing education programmes are usually measured using passing rates in licensure examinations by several government organizations. However, few studies have associated quality of nursing education to the quality of nursing instructors, this study probed further and determined whether the quality of nursing education programmes differs according to profile of faculty members in Philippines colleges of higher education in higher educational institutions.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey study design was employed in this study. One hundred and eight-five (185) faculty members in fifteen (15) higher educational institutions were selected for the research using purposive sampling. The study was carried out with the period of January 1 – June 30, 2017. Close-ended structured questionnaires based on study objectives were used to collect data. Frequency and Percentages were used to analyse the profile of faculty members whereas weighted means from a four liker’s scale was used to interpret the extent of perceived quality of nursing education programme.
Results
Majority, 39% and 46% of faculty members had 1–5 years’ clinical experience and 6–10 years of teaching experience respectively. Study participants with a grand weighted mean of 3.84 out of 4.00 strongly agreed that quality of nursing education programme is synonyms with other universities in the world. Significant differences existed in the quality of mission/vision/goals/objectives (p-value = 0.008), curriculum and instruction (p-value = 0.038), administration of nursing programme (p-value = 0.025), faculty development programme (p-value = 0.003), physical structure and equipment (p-value = 0.016), student services (p-value = 0.017), admission of students (p-value = 0.010) and quality assurance system (p-value = 0.009) in relation to teaching experience of faculty members.
Conclusion
Faculty members strongly perceived nursing education programmes to be of good quality in this study. Teaching experience of instructors predicted significant differences in the quality of nursing education programme in all the quality matrix indicators. However, clinical experience and job category of faculty members rather showed that quality of nursing education is the same throughout all the higher educational institutions.