Abstract
Purpose: To examine the effect on public health nurses of a reflection-based health guidance skills improvement program for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases. Method: A 4-day program was conducted over a 3-month period. We evaluated the effects of the program by measuring participants' responses to items on health guidance skills (before, immediately after, and 3 months after the program). Regarding health guidance skills, participants carried out 30 minutes of health guidance for simulated patients. After this was complete, the simulated patients evaluated others, and participants performed self-evaluations at the three different time periods. We also performed a content analysis to explore changes in the intervention group as a function of the reflection process during the program. Results: There were 11 participants in both the intervention and the control group. After 3 months of the program, a multivariate analysis of variance found that, in the self-evaluations, the control group scored significantly higher on two items. For evaluations of others, there were no significant differences between the items. Content analysis showed that the intervention group was aware of their personal challenges, and all resolved to continue with professional learning. However, the intervention group found adapting their new skills to actual practice to be difficult. Conclusion: The content analysis showed that the intervention promoted reflection, but the intervention group did not score significantly higher on any items. This suggests that there was no effect of the program.
