Background and objectives: Nursing education is currently facing challenges related to the application of nursing knowledge in clinical environments and inability of students in application of nursing procedures in clinical settings. Personal experience as an administrator and professor in the nursing education field has showcased that the current nursing education lags the expectations of the hospital authorities. The employers and hospital administrators require retraining and preparing nurses through orientation and induction before placing them on floors for patient care. This entails additional responsibility and requires additional time and energy. It also results in loss of actual nurses that could be made available for patient care. The objectives of the study were to identify the strengths, weaknesses of an institute towards nurse FIT and to assess the overall FIT and identify the remedial measures to be instituted.

Material and Methods: A descriptive, exploratory survey research approach was used. Purposive sampling techniques was used to select the samples. The sample consisted of 74 final year students from GNM and Basic B.Sc nursing students. Online Self reporting questionnaire was used to collect the data.

Results: The results revealed that the nurses were having an average score in the following attributes: collaboration (51.35%), decision making (44.59%).In the attribute of adaptability, about 79% of the nurses have score between 51 to 70 where as 76% of nurses have emotional intelligence score between 51 and 70.Approximately 96% of the nurses have an overall FIT score between 51 and 70. The competencies that had a good percentage of average score were maturity( 56.76%),Customer Service( 83.78), Decision making( 72.97), Self control( 66.22%0, hygiene( 58.11%), safety( 68.92%). The gap in the attribute of high and average score of the nurse was maximum for accountability, emotional intelligence, decision making and patient focus. The gap is minimal in quality focus area, collaboration and adaptability.

Conclusion: To conclude, it is seen that the education provided has gaps. The education needs to take remedial measures to empower the nurses to develop attributes like accountability, emotional intelligence, decision making and patient focus. The competencies that require attention are: flexibility, system driven and sensitivity and handling stress and tensions.

 

Keywords: Assess, Nurse, FIT, Training