Professional Development Opportunities and Nurse Performance in Level 4 Public Hospitals in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53819/81018102t70118Abstract
Professional development is the key to maintaining nursing competence and supporting effective performance in the growingly complex hospital environment. The study focused on the correlation between professional development opportunities and level of nurse performance in the level four public hospitals of Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Professional development opportunities were codified in terms of availability of training, access to continuing education, mentorship, equality in access to professional development activities and the alignment of professional development activities with professional performance. Nurse performance was measured in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, timeliness, responsiveness, achievement of expected targets and quality of care. This study used a positivist philosophy and explanatory cross sectional design. A sample of 157 respondents was selected from a target population of 258 respondents, which were purposively selected from fourteen Level 4 public hospitals. 145 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 92.4%. The descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression analyses were used. Professional development opportunities (M = 4.03, SD = 0.34) and performance of nurses (M = 4.02, SD = 0.35) were found to be favourable. Professional development opportunities were positively and significantly correlated with nurse performance (r = .624, p < .001). The results of simple linear regression indicated that PD accounted for 38.9% of the variance in nurse performance (R² = .389, B = .633, p < .001), thus the null hypothesis was rejected. The study findings indicate that professional development in the form of structured and equitable opportunities is a key organizational context factor that is related to improved nurse performance. Continuing professional development, mentorship and equal access to learning opportunities should be ingrained in public hospitals as a standard practice and development activities should be linked with clinical and career needs.
Keywords: professional development opportunities, nurse performance, continuing professional development, mentorship, Level 4 public hospitals, Uasin Gishu County
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