The Thoughts and Suggestions of the Students Taking the Public Health Nursing Course about Providing Health Education to the Society

Abstract

Objective: To examine the thoughts and suggestions of the students who take the public health nursing course about providing health education to the society. Methods: The sample of the study, which was conducted in accordance with qualitative research principles, consisted of 22 nursing students studying in the 4th grade of the Faculty of Health Sciences of a university between July and August 2020. The data were collected via personal in-depth interview method and online video conference using personal information form and semi-structured interview form. Only audio recording was made during the interviews. Content analysis method was used to evaluate the data. Ethics committee and institution permission was obtained for the study, decision number 2020/469. Interviews were conducted by obtaining written consent from the students via the google form. Results: The average age of 22 nursing students participating in the study was determined to be 22.85 +/- 3.75. It has been determined that 90.9% of the students are women, 85% do not work in any job, and 80% of them have a medium income level. It was found that 90% of the students had a nuclear family type and 65% of them lived in a province for a long time. The thoughts and suggestions of the students about providing health education to the society consisted of 5 themes and sub-themes. These themes are the theme of experiencing similar experiences in health education, the theme of difficulties in preparing educational material, the theme of difficulties in community education, the theme of the importance of providing health education to the community, and the theme of recommendations on public health education method. Conclusion: It was determined that the students stated individual, social, and institutional difficulties while preparing health education material and made suggestions about the target group and education methodology for the public health education methods.