Strengthening educational advancement for enrolled nurses: Developing a new program framework for Uganda

Mwizerwa, Joseph

Abstract

Uganda has three pre-service program levels for entering nursing practice, the first of which is, the Enrolled Nurse (EN) and constitutes majority of Uganda’s nursing workforce. While these enrolled nurses constitute a substantial proportion of the nursing workforce and are the lowest on the qualification’s framework, their educational advancement opportunities remain limited. A host of barriers are implicated including unsuitable program schedules among others. Due to work and family commitments ENs find themselves unmatched to available programs which are supposed to target them.
Most of the literature on EN educational advancement originates from High income countries, such as Australia, Canada, USA, and European countries. Within Uganda, a low-income country, there is a lack of understanding of the needs of ENs who struggle to access educational advancement programs. Therefore, this thesis explores ENs experiences, aspirations and needs with respect to advancing their nursing careers, hence generating new evidence for designing responsive education programs.
The research progressed in three phases guided by Cross’ Chain of Response Model. The study utilized a mixed methods multiphase design targeting four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with ENs (N=38) and exposed experiences aspirations and needs for their educational advancement within Uganda (phase 1). The knowledge generated from the FGDs was used to ground a cross-sectional survey of barriers and facilitators which was administered to a target random sample (n=423) of ENs (phase two). Interviews with key educators (n=9) examined the suitability of Ugandan EN-RN advancement programs in meeting EN education needs (phase three).
Findings reveal a population of ENs who have strong aspirations for educational advancement yet remain unserved by the current advancement education. Consequently, ENs described their experience as worrying, frustrating and desperate. To advance, they need tuition support, flexible scheduling of advancement education, favourable policies, and support of their employers among others. A comprehensive and stratified table of model elements necessary for building responsive EN-RN programs is presented.

Citation

Mwizerwa, J. (2023). Strengthening educational advancement for enrolled nurses: Developing a new program framework for Uganda. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: May 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 31, 2023
• Keywords: Nursing education, advancement of enroled nurses to registered nursing,
• Award Date: Jun 30, 2023