Recommendations on Teaching Methods Tailored to the Characteristics of Individual Nurses: The Relationship between Dislike of Preoperative Visits and Sense of Coherence

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to make recommendations on how to provide specific educational support to new as well as inexperienced nurses in clinical settings without relying on experience. Operating room nurses who have an aversion to or dislike preoperative visits are being imparted with knowledge and skills, but it is not clear how to support them in responding to the characteristics of their individual orientation. The Sense of Coherence (SOC) questionnaire has the unique feature of being able to quantify and visualize the orientation of an individual. Therefore, we examined individual educational methods by analyzing the trend of SOC scores according to the degree of dislike for preoperative visits. The participants consisted of operating room nurses from 25 domestic hospitals. The survey consisted of their degree of dislike toward preoperative visits, and SOC scores on 29 questions. The analysis consisted of splitting degrees of dislike into two groups, and examining the differences in SOC points. We distributed 444 questionnaires, of which 196 received valid responses. Total SOC points were sorted by whether or not they felt wary, which indicated that those reporting dislike had a significantly lower score (Wary: 120.0, Not wary: 126.0, p value< .001). Further, nurses reporting dislike were found to have lower scores and deviations in the balance of the three SOC sub-concepts (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness). The effect size of SOC on the dislike of the preoperative visits was 0.21. The group with aversion to preoperative visits had significantly lower SOC points and deviations in the three SOC sub-concepts. Therefore, we believe that it is important to provide support that works on the intrinsic motivation of the individual according to their respective SOC balance, rather than simply providing knowledge and skills.