Development And Empirical Study Of A Core Competency Indicator System For Baccalaureate Graduate Student Midwives

OBJECTIVE1.To construct a core competency indicator system for baccalaureate graduate student midwives and to identify the core competencies that they should obtain at the time of graduation.2.To explore the feasibility of the indicator system and to provide theoretical support and references for establishing competency-based higher education scheme,curriculum reform and evaluation in the local contextMETHODS1.Literature review:By searching the database worldwide,combined with responsibility of midwives in Guangdong Province and clinical context,12 competencies were summarized.2.Open-ended questionnaire:Convenient sampling was used to conduct surveys to 50 pregnant and delivery women with 30 midwives in Guangzhou,Guangdong Province,added five midwifery educators and 40 student midwives in Fuzhou,Fujian Province,attempting to collect comprehensive competency elements from different aspects.3.Behavior events interview(BEI):Purposive sampling was used to conduct BEI to 21 midwives,in order to further collect competency elements,thereby establishing the initial indicator system.4.Delphi technique:Twenty experts from 8 provinces and cities were selected to perform two-rounds Delphi inquiries,with expert evaluations to determine the weights of each indicator,thereby establishing the final indicator system.5.Empirical study:Convenient sampling was applied to 200 student midwives to examine the reliability and validity of the indicator system.6.Statistical methods:SPSS 22.0 was used to analysis data.Response rate,Cr,Kendall's coefficient of concordance W were applied to examine the reliability of Delphi technique.In addition,mean and coefficient of variation were to illustrate the evaluation of experts,Cronbach's ? and exploratory factor analysis(EFA)were to describe the reliability and structural validity of the indicator system respectively.P<0.05 was considered as statistical significanceRESULTS1.Open-ended questionnaire:Paper and electronic questionnaires were distributed to respondents,response rate was 94.4%.Eighteen competencies were summarized.2.BEI:There were 21 recordings and texts.The overall length of the interviews was 794.21 minutes with 188902 words.Category agreement(CA)was 0.80?0.96.Twenty-six competencies were extracted.3.Delphi technique:Twenty inquiry questionnaires were sent and received.Coefficient of authority(Cr)of the first and second round were 0.905 and 0.950 respectively.Kendall's coefficient of concordance W of two rounds were of statistical significant(P<0.001).The final indicator system was established including 4 dimensions and 30 competencies.4.Empirical study:Paper and electronic questionnaires were distributed to respondents and received 165 valid pieces.Item analysis showed that mean of each item in two groups was of statistical significant(P<0.001).The overall Cronbach's a was 0.944 with 0.852?0.879 for each dimension.Principal component analysis was used to extract 4 factors,total variance explained 58.863%.CONCLUSION1.This study identifies the superficial and underlying core competencies of graduate student midwives,including 4 dimensions and 30 items.By using the indicator system,it can differentiate the graduates with different competency levels.2.The indicator system is based on real working context of midwives,consisting of motivations,personalities,attitudes or values,professional knowledge,skills and so on,with professionalism and feasibility.It can estimate whether student midwives possess essential competencies upon graduation as it is of good validity and reliability.3.The general competency level of baccalaureate graduate student midwives is fair well.The items with lower scores indicate the shortage in the present higher education of midwifery.In order to cultivate high-quality midwives,educators can develop individualized teaching methods according to the competency level that students perform and regulate clinical tutorship in final academic year.