Abstract

OTERO CEBALLOS, Marta. Appropriateness of the competency-based design of the ¨mental health and nursing¨diploma´s course. Educ Med Super [online]. 2014, vol.28, n.4, pp.743-750. ISSN 0864-2141.

Nursing has developed as a science and profession since the middle of the 20th and has contributed in a significant way to the health care and to mental disease management together with other sciences. Psychiatric nursing has also developed as a specialty worldwide but such a great development has not been reached in Cuba yet, so the objective of this paper was to analyze the appropriateness of the competence-based design of the mental health and nursing diploma's courses as part of the graduate program aimed at nurses working in this type of service. The research had three stages. The first stage identified the specialized formation requirements of the participants; the second one designed the mental health and nursing diploma's course with the support of a research team through group work to validate several rounds based on the expert criteria, and the third one witnessed the holding of the course with 20 Bachelors of Nursing and its results were rated as highly satisfactory. The course was prepared taking the profiles of the graduates into account. The curriculum was structured in 8 courses that may be given separately, with their own system of objectives, contents, acquired and related competencies, function and their evaluation system. The contents of this design and those of other international courses were very similar. It is concluded that competence-based design of the mental health and diploma's course is appropriate according to the first course for 20 nursing professionals.

Keywords : mental health nursing; competency-based design.

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