Research Article

TAF Preventive Medicine Bulletin, 2013: 12(6)

Araştırma / Research Article

TAF Prev Med Bull 2013; 12(6):619-624

Türk Hemşirelik Öğrencilerinde Purdue Pegboard Beceriklilik Testi İle Sınıf Başarı Sıralamasının Korelâsyonu [Correlation of Purdue Pegboard Dexterity Test Scores with Class Rank of Turkish Nursing Students] ÖZET AMAÇ: Bu çalışma Türk hemşirelik öğrencilerinde el becerileri ile başarı sıralamaları arasındaki korelâsyonu belirlemek için gerçekleştirilmiştir. YÖNTEM: Purdue Pegboard Testi öğrencilerin el becerilerini belirlemek için kullanılır. Bu test standart zaman aralığında el becerilerinin uygulanması prensibine dayanır. Çalışma Şubat-Mart 2010 tarihleri arasında Gülhane Askeri Tıp Akademisinde birinci ve dördüncü sınıf hemşirelik öğrencisi arasında yürütülmüştür. BULGULAR: Çalışmaya 171 hemşirelik öğrencisi katılmıştır. Öğrencilerin çivi yerleştirme ortalaması sağ elle 15,7±1,7, sol elle 14,6±1,5 ve her ikşi elle 12,1±1,6 idi. Montaj yapma ortalamaları 8,7±1,6 olarak belirlendi. Öğrencilerin el becerilerine göre karşılaştırmada her iki el ortalamaları dördüncü sınıf öğrencilerinde birinci sınıf öğrencilerine göre istatistiksel olarak daha yüksekti. SONUÇ: El becerisi hakkında Türkler için normatif verilere ulaşma ihtiyacı vardır. SUMMARY AIM: This study is performed to determine the correlation between manual skill of the Turkish nursing students and their class rank. METHODS: The Purdue Pegboard test is utilized to determine the manual skills of the students. This test is based on the applicability principle of the manual skills at standard time intervals. The study was conducted between February to March 2010 among first and fourth year nursing students of Gulhane Military Medical Academy. RESULTS: Study included 171 Nursing students. The pin placement average of the students was 15.7±1.7 with the right hand, 14.6±1.5 with the left hand and 12.1±1.6 with both hands and their assembly generation average is determined as 8.7±1.6. At a comparison regarding the manual skills of the students, it is determined that the both hand average of the fourth class students was statistically higher than that of the first class students (p = 0.0009). CONCLUSION: There is a need of assessing Turkish normative data on manual dexterity.

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Bilal Bakır 1 Necmettin Koçak 2 Celale Tangül Özcan 1 Tayfun Kır 3 Mehmet Çetin 3 Turan Fedai 1

Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GMMA), Ankara, Turkey 2 School of Nursery, GMMA, Ankara, Turkey 3 Department of Military Health Services, School of Medicine, GMMA, Ankara, Turkey Anahtar Kelimeler: Türk Hemşirelik Öğrencileri, El Becerisi, Beceriklilik, Purdue Pegboard Test Key Words: Turkish Nursing Student, Manual Skill, Dexterity, Purdue Pegboard Test Sorumlu yazar/ Corresponding author: Necmettin Koçak, Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy [email protected]

Gönderme Tarihi/Date of Submission: 01.11.2012 , Kabul Tarihi/Date of Acceptance: 21.03.2013

INTRODUCTION Manual dexterity is frequently evaluated in rehabilitation services to estimate hand function and in child services to diagnose neurologically based learning disabilities (1,2). It was also used to quantify the dexterity levels provided by different types and number of medical gloves (3,4) Manual dexterity tests are routinely used to provide vocational placement recommendations for any form of work that requires the manual www.korhek.org

DOI:10.5455/pmb1-1351685898

manipulation or assembly of materials. In a recent review study the number of dexterity assessments was stated as more than 20 and among them, Purdue Pegboard test with having solid psychometric properties is recommended to assess fine finger dexterity (5). Along with many jobs, some health professions require to apply manual dexterity for candidates. According to Canadian Dental association, some Canadian dental schools use the Manual Dexterity

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TAF Preventive Medicine Bulletin, 2013: 12(6) Test (MDT) as part of their admission requirements along with Dental Aptitude Test Program (6). There is also interest in the assessment of manual dexterity in surgery and of surgical residency applicants (7,8) Students admitted to the nursing program are expected to meet certain functional abilities to be successful in a nursing education program. Manual dexterity, including gross and fine movements is one of these abilities since a nursing student should be able to perform such function(s) as to move around in the workplace to provide care, administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation; provide safe and effective nursing care. Motor skills sufficient to handle small equipment such as insulin syringe and administer medications by all routes, perform tracheotomy suctioning, insert urinary catheter are the examples of required activities at nursery practice. However, it is not a requirement for applicants to nursing schools to take a manual dexterity test (9). Nursing School programs in Turkey rely on objective measures of primary and high school cognitive performance, including Turkish republic Higher Education Test (TRHET) scores and class rank, to predict success of an applicant in their training program. Although job applicants in non-medical fields often undergo dexterity testing prior to being hired, this has not been used in the selection process for nursing or medical students or surgical residency applicants. Thus, successful identification of applicants likely to succeed in nursing fields remains elusive. Given this difficulty, we wondered if performance on tests of manual dexterity would correlate with nursing school class rank and TRHET scores. The comparison of the dexterity scores with available normative data would be also performed MATERIAL AND METHOD Subjects This study was conducted among all 171 first year and fourth year nursing students at Gulhane Military Medical Academy Nursing School during February and March 2010. Instrumentation The Purdue Pegboard test was used in order to determine the manual skills of the students. This test is based on the applicability principle of the manual skills at standard time intervals. Two types of activity are measured; one involving gross movement of

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hands, fingers, and arms and the other involving primarily what may e called an assembly or fingertip dexterity. Five separate scores are generally utilized in this application; 1) right hand, 2) left hand 3) both hands 4) right + left + both hands and 5) assembly. While scores of right hand, left hand, both hands require 30 seconds as test duration, assembly requires only 60 seconds. Right plus left plus both hands is not based on a separate test, it is obtained by combining the test scores of right hand, left hand, and both hands (10). The mean scores of referred and non referred hand were estimated at the analysis phase by interchanging domain hand score with the other hand score. The class rank and TRHET scores were requested from school administration. The data was analyzed by using SPSS 15.0 packed program. Descriptive statistics have been presented as frequencies and percentages. Scores of dexterity were compared across the grades by using student t-test. Pearson correlation method has been used to find out any correlation between mideducational year score, TRHET score and Dexterity scores. Statistical significant has been accepted when p is