Promotion of safe motherhood in the nursing competency-based curriculum

Purpose@#Nurses play a significant role in maternal health. The nursing competency-based curriculum prepares students for this role. This study identified the competencies on safe motherhood expected of graduating nursing students, determined the degree of integration of these competencies in the curriculum, and described students' perceived levels of proficiency in performing said competencies. @*Design@#This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The authors deduced concepts and principles of safe motherhood in nursing based on the 2006 standard competencies. A complete enumeration of 55 graduating students of a college of nursing in a state university in Manila participated in the study.@*Methods@#Students rated the competencies from A: “concepts were merely introduced” to D, “threaded through” in selected courses. The level of proficiency ranged from 1: “can perform well without supervision” to 4 “cannot perform despite supervision.” Ratings were analyzed using frequency counts, mode, and percentage distributions.@*Findings@#Seventy competencies on safe motherhood were derived. Cognitive and affective competencies on the basic nursing processes were threaded through in foundation, intervention, and intensive nursing process courses. Students could perform the cognitive and affective competencies without supervision but required assistance in performance of skills.@*Conclusion@#The nursing curriculum prepares students to promote safe motherhood; however, students need to improve their clinical skills to be fully competent.

Transformative scale-up of the school of health sciences, University of the Philippines Manila

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> The School of Health Sciences (SHS), University of the Philippines Manila, established in 1976 offers a one-of-its kind ladder-type, community-based curriculum in health sciences.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>OBJECTIVE:</strong> This study described the SHS curriculum and how it contributed to the transformative scale-up of the education of health professionals in the Philippines.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>METHODS:</strong> This study is a concurrent transformative mixed method design. Data were collected concurrently through interviews of university officials, faculty, students, alumni, communities, and partners as well as observations of review classes and office activities. Quantitative data were collected from school records and performance ratings of students. From the data emerged the basic principles of primary health care and community-based education and they were juxtaposed to describe transformative learning of SHS students and faculty.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RESULTS:</strong> All of the 3,481 students admitted from 1976 came from geographically isolated and depressed areas; more than 95% of the graduates are still in the country and chose to serve the communities. The school's ladder-type, community-based curriculum produced competent midwives, nurses, and physicians. SHS did not just transform its students but also the faculty, communities, its partner local, national, and international agencies, and changed the landscape of community-based education in the region.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /><strong>CONCLUSION</strong>: SHS produced health professionals who chose to serve the communities. It continues to evolve to institutionalize primary health care and community-based education.</p>