Twenty First Century Skills of Nursing Students of Mission Faculty of Nursing, Asia-Pacific International University

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive research was to examine and to compare the 21st century skills of nursing students in our Faculty. All 317 students from the first year to fourth year were surveyed. A questionnaire, adapting by researchers from the work of Kamolrat Therner and others (2014), was used. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance and post hoc analysis using Scheffé method. Results obtained were as follows: 1) The skills required by 21st century nursing students were at a high level in our Faculty when comparing with the established criteria; 2) Specific skills were excellent. These represented writing and mathematical skills, creative thinking skills, problem solving skills, initiating and innovational skills, ability to differentiate paradigm and culture, cooperative skills in teamwork and leadership, skills in updated information and media, computer, technology and communication skills, and professional and learning skills. In addition, the following skills were shown at a moderate level: English reading and ability to transfer information to other persons, identifying crucial issues after reading English articles or text books, ability to speak and write English directly, using basic statistics for analyzing data, and willingness to adopt new methods and processes in nursing; and 3) Comparison of skills of students across the year classes indicated that fourth year students possessed higher levels of desirable skills than the second and third year students. The difference was significant at the 0.05 level.