On-the-Job versus off-the-Job Training of Nurses in Documentation of Nursing Practice

Abstract

Effective training and staff development can help an organization to improve on its performance and productivity. In developing countries, many employers complain about the lack of skills and education of their workforce. The investment by organizations in on-the-job training is one important way to mitigate this skills’ gap. In healthcare, the skills of patient documentation constitute a vital part of the nursing profession. However, nurses’ practice of documentation is often deficient due to lack of knowledge and/or skills. Training, either on-the-job or off-the-job, is the only means that may improve such lack of competencies in documentation. This study was aimed at investigating the differences between on-the-job and off-the-job training of nurses in documentation of nursing practice. A quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent control was used in the conduction of this study at the primary health care (PHC) centers in Giza Governorate on two cluster samples of 75 nurses each, one for on-the-job training, and the other for off-the-job training. A self-administered questionnaire was used for nurses’ knowledge and an audit sheet for their practice of