Self-assessment of nursing competency among final year nursing students in Thailand: a comparison between public and private nursing institutions

Figures & data

Table 1 Details of the 40 nursing schools enrolled in the study by school location and affiliation

Type	Region
	Northern	Southern	Northeastern	Central	Bangkok	Total
Public	6 (11)	5 (9)	7 (12)	8 (13)	3 (7)	10 (23)
Private	2 (2)	NA	2 (5)	4 (7)	3 (7)	11 (21)
Total	8 (13)	5 (9)	9 (17)	12 (20)	6 (14)	40 (73)

Note: The number in parentheses is the total number of nursing schools in each category.

Table 2 Profiles of respondents

Characteristics	Overall respondents (n=3,349)	Public nursing schools (n=2,447)	Private nursing schools (n=902)
Mean age (standard deviation), years	23.0 (1.2)	22.9 (0.2)	23.4 (0.1)
Sex, n (%)
Female	3,161 (94.8)	2,306 (94.6)	855 (95.2)
Male	174 (5.2)	131 (5.4)	43 (4.8)
Location of residence during early life (1–15 years old), n (%)
Urban	1,665 (50.4)	1,209 (50.0)	431 (48.6)
Rural	1,640 (49.6)	1,209 (50.0)	456 (51.4)
Location of nursing school, n (%)
Bangkok	1,117 (33.4)	670 (27.4)	447 (49.6)
Outside Bangkok	2,232 (66.6)	1,777 (72.6)	455 (50.4)
Mode of admission, n (%)
National entrance exam	1,497 (44.9)	1,234 (50.6)	263 (29.3)
Other modes (such as regional quota)	1,839 (55.1)	1,204 (49.4)	635 (70.7)

Note: Missing data are small in number; therefore, they were not included in the analysis.

Table 3 Mean score of each competency level

Competency	Overall respondents	Public nursing schools	Private nursing schools
1. Maintaining professional standards	4.3 (0.6)	4.2 (0.6)	4.3 (0.6)
2. Provision of clinical nursing care	4.0 (0.5)	4.0 (0.5)	3.9 (0.5)
3. Health promotion and disease prevention	4.1 (0.6)	4.1 (0.6)	4.1 (0.6)
4. Coping with emerging diseases	3.5 (0.7)	3.5 (0.7)	3.6 (0.7)
5. Evidenced-based nursing care	3.8 (0.7)	3.7 (0.7)	3.8 (0.7)
6. Systematic thinking	3.9 (0.6)	3.9 (0.6)	3.9 (0.6)
7. Working with diverse communities	4.3 (0.7)	4.3 (0.7)	4.4 (0.6)
8. Addressing population health	3.9 (0.6)	3.8 (0.6)	3.9 (0.6)
9. Collaborating with other health workers in a health care team	4.3 (0.6)	4.3 (0.6)	4.4 (0.6)
10. Leading a health care team	3.8 (0.7)	3.8 (0.7)	3.8 (0.7)
11. Promoting a safe environment	4.2 (0.6)	4.2 (0.6)	4.2 (0.6)
12. Multicultural understanding	4.1 (0.7)	4.1 (0.7)	4.1 (0.7)
13. Keeping pace with health care technology	4.2 (0.6)	4.1 (0.6)	4.2 (0.6)
14. Life-long learning skill	4.2 (0.6)	4.2 (0.6)	4.3 (0.6)

Note: Data presented as mean (standard deviation).

Table 4 Results of the factor analysis of the 14 competencies

Factor	Eigenvalue	Differencea	Proportion	Cumulative
Factor 1	5.8755	4.5780	0.4197	0.4197
Factor 2	1.2975	0.4414	0.0927	0.5124
Factor 3	0.8562	0.0757	0.0612	0.5735
Factor 4	0.7805	0.0903	0.0557	0.6293
Factor 5	0.6902	0.0777	0.0493	0.6786
Factor 6	0.6125	0.0286	0.0437	0.7223
Factor 7	0.5839	0.0362	0.0417	0.7640
Factor 8	0.5477	0.0131	0.0391	0.8031
Factor 9	0.5346	0.0253	0.0382	0.8413
Factor 10	0.5092	0.0313	0.0364	0.8777
Factor 11	0.4779	0.0190	0.0341	0.9118
Factor 12	0.4589	0.0652	0.0328	0.9446
Factor 13	0.3937	0.0118	0.0281	0.9727
Factor 14	0.3819	0	0.0273	1.0000

Note:

a The Difference column shows the difference between the given row and the row below; therefore, the Factor 14 difference is zero. Only factors with eigenvalue >1 were kept for the analysis in the next step (factor loading matrix).

Table 5 Factor loading matrix

Competency	Factor 1	Factor 2	Uniqueness
1. Maintaining professional standards	0.3579	0.5008	0.6211
2. Provision of clinical nursing care	0.1934	0.7558	0.3914
3. Health promotion and disease prevention	0.2585	0.6946	0.4507
4. Coping with new emerging diseases	0.0754	0.7793	0.3870
5. Evidence-based nursing care	0.2534	0.6495	0.5139
6. Systematic thinking	0.4037	0.5655	0.5173
7. Working with diverse communities	0.7131	0.1753	0.4607
8. Addressing population health	0.4397	0.5050	0.5516
9. Collaborating with other health workers in a health care team	0.7284	0.1995	0.4296
10. Leading a health care team	0.4474	0.4994	0.5504
11. Promoting a safe environment	0.6980	0.2695	0.4401
12. Multicultural understanding	0.6977	0.1996	0.4734
13. Keeping pace with health care technology	0.6707	0.1654	0.5228
14. Lifelong learning skill	0.6398	0.2716	0.5169

Note: The bold entries refer to which factor the given competency was assigned.

Table 6 Findings from the univariate analysis (Student’s t-test) of the composite score

Competency group, mean (SD)	Public nursing schools	Private nursing schools	Differences (SE)	95% Confidence interval	P-value
1. Public health competency	−0.026 (0.020)	0.071 (0.032)	−0.098 (0.039)	(−0.174, −0.021)	0.012*
2. Clinical competency	−0.017 (0.020)	0.046 (0.033)	−0.062 (0.039)	(−0.139, 0.014)	0.110

Note:

* Statistical significance at 95% level of confidence.

Abbreviations: SE, standard error; SD, standard deviation.

Table 7 Multivariate analysis of “public health competency”

Independent variables	Coefficient (SE)	95% Confidence interval	P-value
Private nursing schools (vs public nursing schools)	0.113 (0.040)	(0.033, 0.192)	0.005**
National entrance examination (vs other admission modes)	−0.078 (0.036)	(−0.148, −0.008)	0.029*
Nursing schools in Bangkok (vs outside Bangkok)	−0.097 (0.038)	(−0.172, −0.022)	0.011*
Location of residence during early life in urban areas (vs in rural areas)	−0.042 (0.035)	(−0.111, 0.027)	0.229
Constant	0.063 (0.033)	(−0.004, 0.130)	0.066

Notes:

* Statistical significance at 95% level of confidence.

** Statistical significance at 99% level of confidence. R²=0.006.

Abbreviation: SE, standard error.

Table 8 Multivariate analysis of “clinical competency”

Independent variables	Coefficient (SE)	95% Confidence interval	P-value
Private nursing schools (vs public nursing schools)	0.074 (0.041)	(−0.007, 0.155)	0.072
National entrance examination (vs other admission modes)	0.061 (0.036)	(−0.009, 0.131)	0.087
Nursing schools in Bangkok (vs in outside Bangkok)	−0.012 (0.038)	(−0.086, 0.063)	0.759
Location of residence during early life in an urban area (vs in a rural area)	−0.044 (0.035)	(−0.113, 0.025)	0.208
Constant	−0.025 (0.034)	(−0.090, 0.040)	0.452

Note: R²=0.002.

Abbreviation: SE, standard error.