Study of demand for master's degrees in nursing at the Technical University of Machala (Original).

Abstract

Master's programs in nursing are focused on training qualified nurses for the labor market, with cognitive, scientific, professional, and humanistic skills capable of transforming professional practice. This study was carried out to determine the need for postgraduate training in nursing for professionals in the province of El Oro, in view of selecting and designing a master's program at the Technical University of Machala. It was an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study from December 2022 to January 2023. By snowball sampling, the questionnaire was applied that explored: demographic data, professional training, current employment situation, possible master's degree and topics of interest, times available and cost of the course. A descriptive statistical analysis of the data was performed, and dimension reduction by multiple correspondence analysis. In the 243 professionals, the female gender predominated (83.5%), the age range between 23 and 30 years (51.4%), and those with only third level of study (87.2%). Among the nine programs offered, the professionals selected the master's degree in emergency and emergency nursing as the best rated, followed by the master's degree in clinical-surgical nursing, and the master's degree in maternal and child nursing. Within the subjects or topics of interest: specific interventions, practices, life support courses, pharmacological nursing, and patient safety. It is concluded that the preference of professionals corresponds to professional master's degrees, and courses for the acquisition of skills in direct care.