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The relationship of training programs to public health nurses' competencies in primary health care.


 The objective was to determine the types of training programs that Philippine public health nurses participated in, and to determine whether this participation contributed to their competencies in primary health care. Subjects consisted of 110 public health nurses. 44 of them were graduates of the 3-year nursing program (GN). 65 were graduates of the 4-year nursing program. The number of years in service ranged from 1 month to 37 years. All the subjects, except one, were graduates of the more cure-oriented and hospital-based traditional curriculum. 26 (23.64%) never participated in any training program, 29 (26.36%) participated in 1-3 programs, 45 (40.91%) participated in 4-6 programs; 9 (8.18%) participated in 7-9 programs and 1 (.91%) participated in 10 training programs. Approximately 75% of the programs involved health services about diarrhea, tuberculosis, acute respiratory, infections, vitamin-mineral deficiency diseases, cardiovascular diseases, leprosy, psychiatric emergencies, disaster preparation, first aid, family planning, child survival, and immunization. The first hypothesis was the there is no significant difference in the competencies of public health nurses who participated in less than 4 (group I) training programs and those who participated in 4 or more training programs (group II). The mean number of training programs for the entire group was 3.45; 1.24 for group I and 5.65 for group II, a significant difference (p 0.05). The mean score of Group I was 2.78 vs. 2.85 for Group II. The t-test (t=1.10) showed no significant difference between the 2 means. Thus the competencies of the 2 groups were equivalent. The 2nd hypothesis was that there is no relationships between competencies and number of training programs. Pearson's r test indicated r equal to t. 145, therefore a positive but weak relationship existed between the 2 variables. The above findings reveal that the training programs were not comprehensive enough to produce the expected competencies measured by the instruments used.
