Learning Needs Survey on Acquisition of Physical Assessment Skills by Clinical Nurses

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify the learning needs of nurses working in a general hospital regarding the acquisition of physical assessment (hereafter PA) skills.
Methods: The subjects were nurses with at least 3 years of post-graduation experience who worked at a hospital with at least 300 beds and who had given consent to participate in the study. The content of the survey was PA learning experiences as a student and after employment, and PA learning needs by system and by symptom and sign. A simple tally was made for each item. The open-ended responses were qualitatively analyzed.
Results: Nine facilities cooperated in the study. The number of responses was 103 (response rate 38.1%) and the average number of years of experience was 14.6. Among the subjects, 11.7% had no PA learning experience. Learning needs were high for the cardiovascular system and respiratory system in the PA by system, and for the state of shock and chest pain/palpitations in the PA by symptom and sign. In addition, five categories were identified from the open-ended responses.
Discussion: This study revealed that there is a high need to learn PA skills that directly relate to life crises and strong interest in improving clinical judgment skills, suggesting the necessity to create PA teaching materials that meet these learning needs.