Cross-sectional survey on nurses' views, attitudes and concerns about appraisal and revalidation in improving clinical performances

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Nursing Science - Nursing Management, grade: Pass, University of Edinburgh (College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine), language: English, abstract: Research Focus - The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the views, attitudes and concerns of nurses about the role of revalidation in improving clinical performances. Methods - The ethical approval was obtained from the Health and Social Services Ethics Committee of Jersey. The research study involved trained nurses working at the General Hospital and two Nursing homes within Health and Social Services of Jersey. The participants were selected through purposive sampling due to their particular characteristics associated with the research aim. A mixed methods approach, using questionnaires and focus group discussion, was taken to collect data with a view to obtaining more information that might be undetected in the questionnaire. Six participants were involved in the focus group discussion and 100 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the nurses within the selected settings. Results: The response rate was 55%. 92.7% of the respondents believed that appraisal was a confidential process and 56.4% agreed that appraisal and revalidation were the same. 49.1% of the respondents were in favour of appraisal compared to 43.6% in favour of revalidation. 67.6% believed that revalidation could improve their clinical performances whilst 38.6% believed that performance review and appraisal had no effects on their clinical performances. Conclusion - This research study has shown that there are still divided opinions about appraisal and revalidation. Some people viewed appraisal as only theoretical with no practical evidence in improving clinical performances. The study also discovered that some nurses did not want patients and public involvement in their revalidation process. There was also lack of understanding between assessment, appraisal and revalidation by some nurses. The response rate and sampling methods might reduce the confidence to claim that this study had achieved the representative views of the broader nursing profession at the Health and Social Services of States of Jersey. However, the research argues for a need to research into the views and opinions of nurses towards appraisal and revalidation that could represent the broader views of the nursing profession and also attitudes of nurses towards patients and public involvement in appraisal and revalidation