Educational Program for Enhancing Maternity Nurse Students’ Competence Standards Regarding Intrapartum Care

Background: Competency refers to one's ability to apply certain levels of Knowledge and skills to produce specific outcomes according to some pre-test standards. These standards are external criteria of best practice to which current performance can be compared. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of educational program for enhancing of maternity nurse students’ competence standard regarding Intrapartum care at Ain Shams University Hospital. A quasi-experimental research design was utilized (time-series one group). A purposive Sample of 70 female nurse students in the Faculty of Nursing at Ain shams University was included in this study. Data were collected through three tools (1) personal data assessment sheet, (2) Maternity Competency Standards Checklist, and (3) Knowledge assessment sheet. Results: There were significant differences (p <.001) between the pretest and posttest 1 in students' overall maternal competency in area of intrapartum care. Specifically, students' mean scores of overall maternal competency in this area have increased significantly in the posttests (1, 2, and 3) compared to the pretest. Conclusion: Implementing of an education program improved level of competence among nurse students in area of Intrapartum care. Students 'competences included both knowledge about the maternal competency standard, and performance (implementation) of maternal competency standard. Recommendations: maternal competency standards should be a part of the academic and professional preparation of students and the evaluation plan at the Faculty of Nursing.