Abstracts
OBJECTIVES: to identify the agreement of faculty affiliated with Brazilian higher education institutions about the global health competencies needed for undergraduate nursing students' education and whether these competencies were covered in the curriculum offered at the institution where they were teaching.
METHOD: exploratory-descriptive study, involving 222 faculty members who answered the Brazilian version of the "Questionnaire on Core Competencies in Global Health", made available electronically on the website Survey Monkey.
RESULTS: participants predominantly held a Ph.D. (75.8%), were women (91.9%) and were between 40 and 59 years of age (69.3%). The mean and standard deviation of all competencies questioned ranged between 3.04 (0.61) and 3.88 (0.32), with scores for each competency ranging from 1 "strongly disagree" to 4 "strongly agree". The results demonstrated the respondents' satisfactory level of agreement with the global health competencies.
CONCLUSIONS: the study demonstrated a high mean agreement level of the nursing faculty from Brazilian HEI with the global health competencies in the questionnaire. The curricula of the HEI where they teach partially address some of these. The competencies in the domain "Globalization of health and health care" are the least addressed.
World Health; Nursing; Competency-Based Education; Education, Nursing
OBJETIVOS: identificar a concordância de docentes vinculados a instituições de ensino superior brasileiras, quanto às competências em saúde global, necessárias para a formação do aluno de enfermagem, durante o curso de graduação, e se as competências eram contempladas no currículo atual da instituição em que atuavam.
MÉTODO: estudo exploratório-descritivo, realizado com 222 docentes que responderam a versão brasileira do "Questionário sobre Competências Básicas Essenciais de Saúde Global", disponibilizado em formato eletrônico no website Survey Monkey.
RESULTADOS: houve predomínio de doutores (75,8%), sexo feminino (91,9%) e faixa etária entre 40 e 59 anos (69,3%). A média e o desvio-padrão de todas as competências questionadas variaram de 3,04 (0,61) a 3,88 (0,32), sendo que a pontuação atribuída para cada competência foi de 1 "discordo totalmente" a 4 "concordo totalmente". Os resultados demonstraram nível de concordância satisfatório dos respondentes em relação às competências de saúde global.
CONCLUSÕES: o estudo demonstrou alta média de concordância dos enfermeiros docentes de instituições de ensino superior brasileiras, quanto às competências em saúde global do questionário, e, também, que os currículos das instituições de ensino superior em que atuavam comtemplavam parcialmente algumas delas, sendo que as competências do domínio "Globalização da saúde e da assistência à saúde" são as menos contempladas.
Saúde Mundial; Enfermagem; Educação Baseada em Competências; Educação em Enfermagem
OBJETIVOS: identificar la concordancia de docentes vinculados a Instituciones de Educación Superior brasileñas respecto a las competencias en salud global necesarias para la formación del alumno de enfermería durante el curso de pregrado y si las competencias eran contempladas en el currículo actual de la institución en que actuaban.
MÉTODO: estudio exploratorio-descriptivo, llevado a cabo con 222 docentes que respondieron a la versión brasileña del "Cuestionario sobre Competencias Básicas Esenciales de Salud Global" disponible en formato electrónico en la página Survey Monkey.
RESULTADOS: predominaron doctores (75,8%), sexo femenino (91,9%) y rango de edad entre 40 y 59 años (69,3%). El promedio y desvío estándar de todas las competencias cuestionadas variaron de 3,04 (0,61) a 3,88 (0,32), siendo que la puntuación atribuida para cada competencia varió de 1 "completamente en desacuerdo" a 4 "completamente de acuerdo". Los resultados demostraron nivel de concordancia satisfactorio de los respondientes respecto a las competencias de salud global.
CONCLUSIONES: el estudio demostró alta concordancia media de los enfermeros docentes de IES brasileñas respecto a las competencias en salud global del cuestionario y que los currículos de las IES en que actúan contemplan parcialmente algunas de ellas, siendo que las competencias del dominio "Globalización de la salud y de la atención a la salud" son las menos contempladas.
Salud Mundial; Enfermería; Educación Basada en Competencias; Educación en Enfermería
Introduction
The increased international mobility and dissemination of illnesses among countries, the technological advances and the greater interdependence among nations contribute to the acknowledgement of the need to prepare students from all health professions to understand the local, national and international contexts, focusing on the development of cultural and cross-cultural skills in response to global health needs( 1 - 7 ).
In this perspective, research results demonstrate North American universities' growing interest in the global health area, identifying the following main causes: students' increased awareness about the importance of global issues for health, greater visibility of international health, search for equity as one of the components of the North American external policy and the expansion of resources in the area with the consequent increase in opportunities for faculty members and work places for the students( 8 ).
As a result of the intensification of globalization and the exchange movements of goods, services, people and diseases among countries, the interest in global health themes has grown in different health professions and, consequently, these contents are included in different undergraduate programs in health and other related areas.
In Brazil, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) organize their curricular structures according to the Curricular Guidelines for undergraduate nursing education. These guidelines establish a profile of graduated professionals who are capable of knowing and intervening in the most prevalence health-disease problems/situations in the national epidemiological profile( 9 ). Although they do not explicitly recommend the inclusion of global health contents, the guidelines indicate that the education should provide the professionals with competencies and general communication skills and continuing education that include the mastery of at least one foreign language and of communication and information technologies, as well as the ability to continuously learn and develop academic/professional mobility through national and international networks. These guidelines support the development of research that is particularly focused on global health competencies as part of the nursing education process in Brazil.
Global Health can be defined as "a study, research and practice area that prioritizes the improvement of health and achievement of equity in health for all around the world"( 10 ). Global Health highlights cross-sectional health themes and involves areas related to the health sciences, promoting interdisciplinary cooperation, especially in the primary health care context( 10 ).
Thus, in 2008, a Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) was launched to promote the involvement of American universities in confronting key aspects of global health. The CUGH held a meeting in Washington, D.C. in September 2009 with representatives from the Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC). The GHEC is leading an initiative aimed at developing global health competencies among medical students. On the occasion, the need was discussed for other health professionals to develop similar competencies( 11 ).
In that sense, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the University of São Paulo (USP) at Ribeirão Preto got permission from GHEC to adapt the instrument developed for medical students to nursing, with a view to identifying the agreement among nurses about the global health competencies needed for their activity at an expanded level. The questionnaire was initially validated and used in a research focused on Spanish-speaking nursing faculty from Latin America and North America, and later validated and applied in Brazil( 12 ).
Hence, this study was developed to identify: the agreement among nursing faculty affiliated with Brazilian Higher Education Institutions (HEI) about the global health competencies the students need to develop in their undergraduate nursing program and whether the current curriculum at the institution where they teach addresses these competencies.
Method
Quantitative methodological study with a cross-sectional design, involving 222 nursing faculty from Brazilian nursing HEI. The Brazilian version of the "Questionnaire on Core Competencies in Global Health" was used. This questionnaire consists of two parts: the first is related to the subjects' characteristics, and the second to the core competencies in global health of undergraduate nursing students. The participants identified the degree they considered appropriate for each type of competency, with scores ranging from 1 "I strongly disagree" to 4 "I strongly agree". The questionnaire includes 30 competencies, divided in six domains: Global burden of disease; Health implications of migration, travel and displacement; Social and environmental determinants of health; Globalization of health and healthcare; Healthcare in low-resource settings; Health as a human right and development resource. For each item, space was available to mark whether the competency was addressed in the curriculum offered at the institution where the faculty member was teaching.
After receiving authorization from the Research Ethics Committee at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing (Opinion 1135/2010), the questionnaire was made available through the website Survey Monkey. Next, an e-mail was sent to deans, course coordinators and nursing departments of 80 HEI in Brazil, inviting them to participate in the research and asking them to disseminate it to the faculty. To choose the HEI, the list of institutions from the database of the Secretariat of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centers for Nursing and Midwifery Development was used, located at the WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing Research Development at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing. Twenty HEI were randomly selected from each region of Brazil, including 10 public and 10 private institutions in each region. Ethical guidelines were followed, in compliance with National Health Council Resolution 196/96, and the entire process was online and voluntary, in accordance with each subject's interest, availability and time. The data were processed in the software SPSS and submitted to descriptive statistical analysis.
Results
The answers to 222 questionnaires were considered. Table 1 displays the research participants' profile.
In Table 2, the types of nursing courses offered at the school of nursing where the faculty members work are listed.
Types of nursing courses offered at the school of nursing where the faculty member teaches. Brazil, 2012
The mean, standard deviation (SD) and Cronbach's alpha (α) for the Brazilian nursing faculty members' agreement with the global health competencies undergraduate nursing students need to develop are demonstrated in Table 3.
Mean, standard deviation (SD) and Cronbach's alpha (α) for the faculty members' agreement with the Global Health Competencies students need to develop in their undergraduate nursing program. Brazil, 2012
The 30 competencies addressed in the questionnaire were considered, divided in 06 domains. The means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the 30 competencies and Cronbach's alpha was obtained for each of the 06 domains.
The table below displays the faculty members' answers to the question about whether the competencies are addressed or not in the curriculum offered at the institution they are affiliated with.
The results demonstrated that most of the competencies were not included in the curriculum offered at the nursing schools the research respondents represented. The percentage of respondents who indicated using some competency ranged between 6.7% ("demonstrate an understanding the health risks posed by international travel or foreign birth") and 75.3% ("describe how social and economic conditions such as poverty, education and life styles affect health and access to health care").
Answers from faculty members about the inclusion of the competencies in the curriculum at the institution they are affiliated with. Brazil, 2012
Discussion
The profile of the research population is in accordance with other studies involving higher education faculty, with a predominance of women, between 30 and 50 years of age, with 20 years or more of experience and the majority working as undergraduate Nursing faculty( 13 - 14 ). This profile is aligned with the characteristics of the nursing profession. As regards the academic background, in the studies mentioned, most of the faculty members hold a Master's degree( 13 - 14 ), as opposed to the present study, in which the majority holds a Ph.D., which demonstrates that the Brazilian HEI are complying with the 1996 Education Law, whose paragraph 52 requires that at least one third of the teaching staff possesses a Master's or Ph.D. degree.
Concerning the global health competencies the students need to develop in their undergraduate nursing program, the means and standard deviation ranged between 3.04 (0.61) and 3.88 (0.32), demonstrating the Brazilian faculty members' satisfactory level of agreement.
Cronbach's α coefficient measures the degree of co-variance of a range of items and varies between 0 and 1. The closer to one, the greater the reliability of the scale. This coefficient was applied to the six domains of the questionnaire, resulting in a coefficient that ranged between 0.68 and 0.87, while the coefficient for the total questionnaire corresponded to 0.92.
In the contemporary world, the globalization process imposes great challenges on the health areas and Nursing is part of this process. These challenges partially derive from the many changes that continuously happen in the political, economic, social and cultural contexts and that directly affect the individual and collective health of the population( 16 ).
In view of this premise, these contents need strengthening in the Nursing curricula, in search of alignment with contemporary scientific and technological advances, involving innovative actions to respond to human, social and environmental needs, so as to be able to support and direct the professional practice related to teaching, research and care in the local and global contexts( 16 - 17 ).
It makes no sense to restrict education to the classroom, using the blackboard and chalk, with the predominance of a vertical relation in teaching. New concepts and teaching-learning models need to be adopted with a view to achieving significant changes in the way knowledge is transmitted( 17 ).
In view of this scenario, educational entities are concerned with the use of new teaching models that permit the development of knowledge, interpersonal and ethical-legal technical skills and core attitudes to act in view of the targets of the national health systems, which follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). New concepts and attitudes are needed that guarantee the problem-solving ability of health care( 18 - 20 ), including possibilities to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), facilitating access without geographical limits( 19 - 21 ).
In this context, to respond to the demands of the new professional profile, many HEI are adopting active and interactive teaching-learning methods, including the Internet as a tool to get access to information and share educational resources in class and in distance education. Nevertheless, research results in Brazilian nursing institutions demonstrate that on-line teaching is still incipient in Brazil( 17 ).
Therefore, it is highlighted that the HEI need to adopt investment policies in the technological training of faculty members and students, and need to invest in infrastructural changes with a view to the development of competencies, skills and knowledge in global health, optimized by the use of ICTs( 17 , 22 ).
In this study, many respondents did not answer the question about the inclusion of these competencies in the curriculum offered at the institutions they are affiliated with. Hence, it can be inferred that, although the research participants consider the importance of global health competencies, not all of them are addressed in the curriculum at the HEI where they teach, demonstrating a gap that calls for nursing education leaderships' attention. Therefore, it is important to establish partnerships and develop interrelationships among the different frontiers of human experience, in the attempt to guarantee each nursing student's preparation to take up the role as a global citizen, dealing with emerging health challenges( 16 ). Thus, it is fundamental for nursing educators to develop additional teaching strategies with a view to guaranteeing that students incorporate the concept of global citizenship( 23 - 25 ).
Hence, as indicated in an earlier study( 12 ), the global health competencies that need to be included in the nursing curricula should go beyond the biological perspective, in search of different possibilities for nurses' comprehensive action in human care.
Conclusion
The study demonstrated high mean levels of agreement among Brazilian nursing faculty with the global health competencies proposed by the GHEC, which students need to develop in their undergraduate nursing program. As to the inclusion of the competencies in the curriculum offered at the institution where they teach, the nursing faculty confirmed that some contents from the domains "Global burden of diseases", "Health implications of migration, travel and displacement", "Social and environmental determinants of health", "Healthcare in low-resource settings", "Health as a human right and development resource" are addressed, while competencies from the domain "Globalization of health and healthcare" are discussed less.
The HEI play a fundamental role in the education of nursing professionals. Therefore, it is extremely important that they adopt the global health competencies the students need to develop in their undergraduate nursing program. As future professionals who work in health and in the globalized world, investments are needed in competency development, so that these professionals are also creative and capable of transforming the local and global health realities, acting at the different complexity levels of health care, with responsibility and commitment.
In addition, investments are needed in proposals that permit faculty members and students' greater participation in health decisions, in interactive processes that involve bonding and empathy, technology and communication.
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Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Mar-Apr 2014
History
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Received
07 Nov 2012 -
Accepted
07 Nov 2013