Self-directed learning competence assessment within different healthcare professionals and amongst students in Italy
Section snippets
Background
Healthcare professionals work in a complex system where constantly changing social and technological aspects represent a serious challenge. These advances require many competences, which need to be frequently refreshed (Bahn, 2007, Cleary and Freeman, 2005, O’Shea, 2003, Riley-Doucet and Wilson, 1997). Continuing education is a vital resource to safeguard and develop healthcare professionals’ competence as well as promoting adaptability and predicting the need of change (Bahn, 2007, Gopee, 2005
Aims
The general aim of the study was to measure self-learning competence amongst different healthcare workers, from the pre-graduation stage throughout their working life. The specific aims of the study were to describe (a) the self-directed learning competence of Registered Nurses (RN) and Radiologist Technicians (RT) and (b) the self-directed learning competence of student nurses and radiologist technicians before graduation.
Study design
A comparative cross-sectional study design was adopted.
Participants
Two different
Participants
A total of 847 people took part in the study, namely 453 (53.7%) RNs, 141 (16.7%) RTs, 182 (21.6%) RN students and 68 (8.1%) RT students. The participants were on average 34.7 years old (±10.8); 635 (75.2%) were female and 209 (24.8%) male. For their characteristics (age, sex, length of service and qualifications) see Table 1.
Self-directed learning competence
On the scale (min 60, max 300), the participants (847) kept an average score of 224.7 (±25.0, range 128–291). 25% obtained a score of 208, 50% of 225 and 75% of 241.
Discussion
In the framework of continuing education, which was made compulsory in Italy through the ECM system, it is becoming more and more important to enhance and validate measuring instruments for self-directed learning competence. In Italy, only one assessment instrument is available, i.e. the Self-Rating Scale of Self-Directed Learning (Williamson, 2007) validated amongst Nurses and Radiologist Technicians (Cadorin et al., 2010, Devetti, 2008). From a cultural point of view, the SRSSDL is suitable
Conclusions and implication for practice
For healthcare workers, the importance of self-directed learning lies in the context in which they operate in an ever-changing healthcare environment. Many efforts are made by Universities and continuing education centers to progressively introduce strategies promoting self-directed learning. However, due to the lack of measuring tools in monitoring the development of self-directed competence through time, a systematic assessment of effectiveness of such efforts is not available yet.
The
Funding
None.
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