Abstract:

Professional development is desirous for any nursing official who is engaged in patient’s care and teaching or mentoring of student nurses. This research paper evaluated the attitude of nurses toward professional development trainings, assessed the reasons for their attitude in the professional development trainings and tried to proffer suggestions that will improve on the professional development of the nurses. It was a prospective, randomized, questionnaire-based cross-sectional descriptive survey of the attitude of nurses towards professional development among nurses working at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria. One hundred and thirty-one nurses were studied, 99 (76%) were females and 22 (24%) were males (F: M=4.5:1). Results showed that the majority of the nurses had adequate knowledge about the nursing profession and professional development, and were would like to embrace further professional training given the opportunity, necessary motivation, support and encouragement. Many factors militated against the nurses’ interest in the professional development trainings, including family commitment, distances, time and lack of institutional financial support. It is recommended that professional development trainings should be encouraged. Nurses may be motivated and encouraged to participate in the professional development trainings in order to achieve the individual and organizational goal of quality health care delivery to patients.

Keywords: Professional training, Nurses’ attitude, Professional development, Service delivery, motivation and quality health care.

References:

[1].Attri A. K. Helping hands of professional development programs and trainings for teacher effectiveness. Academic Discourse: An International Journal. 2012; 4(1): 1-10

[2].Baker, S., Smith, S. “Starting off on the right foot: the influenced of four principles of professional development in improving literacy instruction in two kindergarten programs”. In: learning disabilities research and practice, 1999; 14(4), 239-253.

[3].Blunt, A., & Yang, B. Factor structure of the Adult Attitudes Toward Adult and Continuing Education Scale and its capacity to predict participation behavior: Evidence for adoption of a revised scale. Adult Education Quarterly, (2002); 52(4), 299-314.

[4].Broko, H., Putnam. R. T. (1995) Expanding a teacher knowledge base: a cognitive psychological perspective on professional development. New York: Teachers college press.

[5].Dalin, Per, T. Ayano, A. Biazen, M. Jahan, M. Miles and C. Rohas. How Schools Improve. (1992). Oslo: IMTEC. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnade030.pdf

[6].Fullen M. The future of educational change: system thinkers in action. Journal of Educational Change. 2006; 7 (3): 113–122

[7].Gibbs, G. and Coffey, M. The impact of training of university teachers on their teaching skills, their approach to teaching and the approach to learning of their students. Active Learning in Higher Education. 2004; 5: 87

[8].Joseph Farrell; Robert Gibbons. Cheap Talk with Two Audiences. The American Economic Review, 1989; 79 (5):1214-1223. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%28198912%2979%3A5%3C1214%3ACTWTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V

[9].Lockheed, M. E., & Verspoor, A. Improving primary education in developing countries. (1991). Washington, D.C: Published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press. http://www.sciepub.com/reference/99343

[10]. L. M. Desimone, A C. Porter, Michael S. Garet, Kwang Suk Yoon and Beatrice F. Birman. Effects of Professional Development on Teachers' Instruction: Results from a Three-Year Longitudinal Study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2002; 24 (2): 81-112.

[11]. Makrani, A. (2010) Professional development of teachers retrieved from http://paknet.net/professional-development-of-teachers/ on 15/6/2017.

[12]. Oreg, S, Bayazit, M, Vakola, M, Aceniega L, Saksvik, I., & Van Dam, K. Dispositional Resistance to Change: Measurement Equivalence and the Link to Personal Values Across 17 Nations. Journal of Applied Psychology, (2008); 93(4), 935- 944.

[13]. Stan, S. A., Stancovici, V., Palos, R. Teacher’s Attitude Toward Continuous Professional Training. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (2013); 84: 1722 – 1726

[14]. TALIS-2010-Teacher’s professional development. Belgium: Luxembourg: Office for official publication. Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS. https://www.oecd.org/berlin/43541636.pdf. Accessed 11/07/2017