From Skills Laboratory to Hospital Duty: Nursing Students Efficacy in Vital Signs and Parenteral Drug Admin at Tobruk University

Background: Related Learning Experience or RLE and Intensive Nursing Practicum are courses offered in Tobruk University, College of Nursing, the former offered for 1 st year and 2 nd year students to prepare them for actual scenario in the hospital by practicing skills related to Nursing and Health care, the latter is exposure in hospital or clinical duty then taking a final return demonstration in the College. Aim: In this study the researchers aimed to present and analyze the efficacy of students in performing vital signs and parenteral drug administration and how much they’ve improved after hospital duty. The hypothesis is that there will be significant improvement from RLE to INP 1. Methods: The research used quantitative research with natural experiment design for analysis of respondent performance in RLE and INP procedures in vital signs and drug administration. Respondents were 3 rd year students’ of INP 1 of College of Nursing from Tobruk University. The study used the return demonstration procedure used in their final practical exam. Results: The results showed a marked improvement and significant correlation of the students’ performance after hospital scenario from RLE average of 68.05 to INP 1 exam average of 72.71 and an r of 0.7151 or high correlation, overall t-test is at 5.3251 and p value of 0.0000. When grouped according to gender, male students showed no significant difference, while female students marked differently from each other in terms of overall performance using a paired t-test. Correlation is from substantial up to high on both genders. In terms of difference in variance when grouped according to students’ rating both in RLE and INP the f-value and p value resulted in significant difference. Conclusion and Recommendation: The study encourage and promote team teaching in training of nursing skills in RLE thus supporting quality nursing education and patient care. Promotion of intensive training for students by nursing staff and clinical instructor in INP or hospital exposure is highly encouraged. Further and continuous study will advance a better result.