The Development of English Listening and Speaking Handbook for Public Hospital Nurses in the EEC Project Area: A Case Study of Buddhasothorn Hospital, Chachoengsao Province

Abstract

This study aimed 1) to investigate the need for English listening and speaking skills development of nurses and the desirable format and content of an English listening and speaking handbook for nurses; 2) to compare listening and speaking skill improvement before and after using the handbook. The samples for the research questionnaires were 175 professional nurses working in Buddhasothorn Hospital in Surgical Department, Medical Department, Out Patient Department, Obstetrics Gynecology: Labor Room, and Orthopedic Department. The samples of the in-depth interview were 18 head nurses or department chiefs in the targeted departments and the samples using the handbook to develop listening and speaking skills were 30 nurses in the same departments. The research instruments were questionnaires, semi-structured in-depth interview questions, the handbook evaluation form, English Listening and Speaking Handbook for Nurses with Audio CD converted into QR Code, and pre and post-tests.  Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis, and the hypothesis testing was performed by paired sample t-test. Additionally, content analysis was applied for the interview results.  The study revealed that the samples needed to develop listening and speaking skills at high levels: ( = 3.73, S.D. = 0.17) and (= 3.51, S.D. = 0.22), respectively. The highest needed functions include: listening and understanding patients’ questions and needs; listening and understanding about patients’ illness history and symptoms, and taking patients’ history and asking about their symptoms. Furthermore, the data obtained from the interview pointed out that the vital listening and speaking problems mostly mentioned were sentence structures and word orders, unfamiliar accents and dialects, limitations of vocabulary, and lack of listening and speaking practices.

            The handbook developed received favorable comments on the format, content, and language from the samples during the skills development process.  After using the handbook in the listening and speaking skills development process, the average post-test scores of the samples were higher than the average pre-test scores, with a statistically significant difference at 0.05, confirming the research hypothesis.