Fidelity Approach to Implementing Basic Nursing Curriculum in Selected Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Basic Nursing is the course that equips every professional nursing trainee with the basic essential skills to function during and after training. As a course built around the acquisition of competences, it is largely made of step-by-step activities or procedures and therefore expected to be taught to the trainees as dictated by the regulator of training and practice. However, the reports of poor standard of nursing care across various health facilities in Ghana makes one want to find out if the course is taught as prescribed. This study was therefore conducted to examine if Nursing Tutors are implementing the Basic Nursing course as prescribed and to what degree. A cross-sectional survey design was employed. Nine colleges were sampled using simple random method and 204 tutors were censused, and 310 students were selected from the nine colleges using systematic random sampling to respond to the structured questionnaire. Data obtained from the study was analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The results showed that majority of Nursing Tutors possess at least an academic Bachelor’s degree, and RGN professional certificate without professional teaching certificate. The most frequently reported teaching mothods used were lecture and discussion methods out of the 20 methods prescribed. Non-projected materials, still-projected materials and printed materials were the most frequently used TLMs. Majority of tutors also expressed negative beliefs about the Basic Nursing curriculum which all culminated in the degree of fidelity of the curriculum being low. These findings call for the need for HTIs to encourage tutors to read post graduate education programmes, organize in-service training on the use of teaching methods and TLMs, and also for the HTIS to establish curriculum units in the various colleges.