American Research Journal of Nursing

Background: The highly-evolving and technologically-advancing nursing practice necessitates the employment of competent nurses in medical institutions and thus, compels nursing institutions to enhance strategies to address the needs of various stakeholders, particularly the employers and patients. Nevertheless, a continuously growing rift in the clinical application of theoretical knowledge has existed over the years across the globe. Hence, our study analyzed the gap between Thomasian nursing education and clinical practice through determining the extent of preparedness of Thomasian Registered Nurses during their first year of professional practice. Methods: After ethics review exemption, we conducted a comparative-descriptive study among 35 purposively selected appraisal reports of Thomasian nurses in a tertiary medical institution. Power analysis revealed a power of 0.91 and an effect size of 0.36. We utilized the performance appraisal report form which had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93, 0.93, and 0.95 for the knowledge/skills, productivity, and personal attribute subsections, respectively. Attendance and conduct, however, depended on log records. Data were analyzed using MANOVA. Results: Most subjects had less than 6 months clinical experience (65.70%), were assigned in Medical-Surgical wards (65.70%), and demonstrated above average clinical performance (85.70%). Comparatively, the over-all performance of Thomasian Registered Nurses did not significantly differ regardless of the length of clinical experience (F=0.36, p=0.84) or area of assignment (F=0.39, p=0.93). Conclusion: Thomasian Registered Nurses are competent to enter the nursing practice and provide patient care. Further, the undergraduate program of UST has sufficiently prepared their students to be competent registered nurses. Nevertheless, it is imperative that nursing institutions constantly improve their strategies considering the ever changing nursing practice and standard.