Perceived level of competency of fourth year PLM Nursing Students and its relation to the extent of preferred area of specialization Duran, Mary Ann T.; Espineli, Elisha Faith S.; Estrada, Patricia Louise P.; Ferrater, Eda Mari L.; Fojas, Maria Theresa A.; Gibaga, Maybelle B. and Gilo, Madelane P. 6

Thesis (Undergraduate) Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2011;College of Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing 56

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ABSTRACT: One of the unique things about nursing is that there is no sole career path ahead. Once a student graduated and received an RN license, many career paths will open and there will be no obvious limit to the number of pathways he/she can pursue. It offers variety of specialization that will suit student nurses passion, genre and preference in the real practice. Furthermore, even if Filipino nurses are well acknowledge of being a generalist, there will be nothing to lose in order to become more competent enough than the other countries catering nurses; they engaged themselves in at least one specially. With these aspects of nursing career, this study was conducted in order to guide and help the students in determining which path of their nursing career will suit their needs and capabilities. Select a nursing specialization wherein they could bring out the best them at the same time rendering high quality of nursing care. This study was intended to identify the relationship of the perceived level of competency and extent of preference on the preferred area of specialization of the Fourth year BSN students of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Specifically, this study answered the following statements: the preferred area of specialization of the fourth year PLM nursing students, the extent of preference in the area of specialization of the fourth year PLM nursing students in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude, the perception of the fourth year PLM nursing students on their level of competency in terms nursing praxis, if there is a significant relationship between the fourth year PLM nursing students perceived level of competency in their theoretical and clinical skills and the extent of their preference on their preferred area of specialization and lastly, according on the result of the study, what career orientation seminar can be developed. This study was limited to the fourth year students in College of Nursing at Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, male and female and have experienced or been exposed on the clinical areas namely Health Center, Obstetrics Ward, Pediatrics Ward, Psychiatric Ward/Mental Hospital, Operating Room, and Intensive Care Unit. The level of competency that was included in the study was measured only based on the perception of the respondents. Descriptive correlational was used as the research design. And was utilized based on the data that the researchers were able to gather for this study. A questionnaire with composed of a self-made and a patterned part was used to gather data that was validated by the experts. The questionnaires were distributed to the population, grouped, and tallied. Different statistical methods like frequency, percentage, weighted mean, and Pearson r were used to treat the data. The findings showed that most PLM senior nursing students preferred operating room nursing, followed by psychiatric nursing, intensive care nursing, pediatric nursing, community health nursing, obstetrics nursing, respectively. And they have very high level of extent of preference on their respective preferred areas of specialization. Likewise, they also have high to very high perception in the level of their competency in terms of theoretical and clinical skills on their preferred area of specialization. And in general, extent of preference with regards of knowledge, skills and attitude has a significant relationship with the PLM BSN students perceived level of competency in the nursing specializations, community health nursing in particular. It is the sole area that contracted positive correlation in all the parameters of preference. The students preference of choosing a nursing specialization in all three aspects; knowledge, skills and attitude directly affects their own perception of individual competence level in community health nursing praxis.

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