ATTITUDE INFLUENCE AND COMPETENCY OF THE NURSING PROCESS AMONG HIGHER DIPLOMA GENERAL NURSING STUDENTS OF KANYE SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST COLLEGE OF NURSING

Introduction: The prevalence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases demands a lot of health service as well as a high level of health professional competence to deliver the service. Many patients’ lives and well-being depend on nurses’ knowledge and skills to address such diverse and complex predicaments which are threatening human existence. Nursing is now practiced based on sound scientific principles embedded in the nursing process. Having identified a little empirical research has been done on exploring the nursing students’ attitudes and their competence of the nursing processing hence prompted this study. This study aimed at determining the Higher Diploma in General nursing (HDGN) students’ attitudes towards nursing, as a programme and the influence of such attitude on their competences of the nursing process.

Design and Methods: The study was inferential survey in design and used simple random sampling technique to reach participants. A statistical analysis of data from a quantitative survey of 90 HDGN students’ with a 42 closed-ended validated Likert-type items was done.

Results: The Findings of the study showed that HDGN students’ attitude towards nursing and nursing programme was significantly less favourable and it was similarly revealed for both females and males students. The level of attitude towards nursing for the HDGN students has a significant influence on their competence of the nursing process. Similarly the analysis of students’ attitude towards the nursing programme were significantly influenced by their competence of the nursing process.

Conclusion: Generally, analysis revealed that the lower the students’ level of attitudes towards the nursing programme, the higher the competence of the nursing process. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended a review of the recruitment, screening and enrolment strategy of nursing students, review of the implementation of the curriculum, the methods of teaching and the quality assurance mechanisms that are in place.