An exploration and analysis of the relative importance of employability skills for undergraduate nursing students as perceived by stakeholders - a mixed methods approach

Williamson, Swapna, Tong, Kit, Paulsen-Becejac, Laila and Stock, Rosemary (2021) An exploration and analysis of the relative importance of employability skills for undergraduate nursing students as perceived by stakeholders - a mixed methods approach. World Journal of Advance Healthcare Research, 5 (5). pp. 104-113. ISSN 2457-0400

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Abstract

Background: Current challenges in healthcare environment require nurses to develop and be equipped
with transferable employability skills in addition to discipline specific skills. Recently, Higher Education
Institutions and healthcare providers have focused on more collaboration and working in partnerships to
develop the requisite employability skills in undergraduates. Objective: To identify and develop an
employability skills questionnaire as informed by the stakeholders including service users. Methods: A
mixed method study using the Delphi technique to develop items of the Employability Skills
Questionnaire, and statistics to examine quantitative results. Setting: A modern university in London.
Undergraduate nurses, academics, managers in healthcare and service users who regularly use National
Health Service participated in the study. Focus groups and Delphi technique was used to obtain the general
consensus in the Questionnaire, and surveys to obtain numerical data to establish the reliability of the
questionnaire and the differences in the stakeholders‟ responses applying ANOVA. Results: The Delphi
technique yielded a consensus of 75% to the Questionnaire. Quantitative findings showed good internal
reliability of the Questionnaire and all stakeholders attributed high value to all the items therein. Data
indicated that service users play a significant role in identifying undergraduates‟ employability skills as
consumers of the healthcare service and gave more weight to the importance of evidence-based
information demonstrating their awareness of the importance of evidence-based practice in healthcare.
Conclusion: It is crucial that nurses keep abreast of current research to translate research findings into
practice and to adapt to different ways of working to improve patient care.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Employability skills, undergraduate, healthcare, stakeholders, service users, higher education institutions
Subjects: Education > Higher education
Medicine and health > Nursing
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Rosemary Stock
Date Deposited: 14 Oct 2021 10:39
Last Modified: 06 Feb 2024 16:07
URI: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/8346

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