Communicative competence of the reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center

Abstract

With the opening of different jobs in different countries, an applicant's communication skills are a pre-requisite to employment. Thus, internationally accredited examinations are needed as they are basic requirements in job applications should they want to get employed overseas. Nonetheless, for nurses to even pursue a career overseas, nursing school graduates should first be able to pass the Local-RN Board Examinations, which is already a challenge at these present times in the country. In this current situation, a hard-hitting motivation presents itself before Filipino nurses to hasten their knowledge and skills to get passing, if not high, rates in the Nursing Board Examinations as well as in the other examinations needed to ultimately fulfill their role as a full-fledged nurse. It is also this line of thought that has fertilized the mushroom growth of review centers, not only locally, but also nationally. As observed, nursing school graduates seek review centers for the pressing need to pass required certifications. In such, review centers play a very important role in a nursing graduate's hopes of a career. It give avenues to reviewees to assess themselves in terms of their readiness, filling-in the needed skills that will boost their confidence and capability to take the much needed examination that will define their nursing career. Because of this, it is imperative that review centers be competent, effective and credible in honing the much-needed skills within reviewees in order to achieve a good performance In these standardized tents. Furthermore, the communicative competence of reviewers, who are the teachers in the institution, should be of top-caliber. This is what the research study aims to find out. With the above-stated current pressing needs the research study has its objectives. First, it aims to enhance and uplift the overall corporate image of Health force One Review Center through strengthening the Communicative Competence of its reviewers. Second, it aims to further upgrade skills and competence level of the reviewers in the area of communications resulting to quality-efficient job output reflected through clientele patronage. Third, it aims to serve as a resource and basis for the development of a program to further improve the communicative competence of reviewers in Health Force One Review Center. And lastly, the study aims to effectively use the English Language in modes of communication related to organizational needs. This study dealt on the effectiveness of the Communicative Competence of reviewers in Health Force One Review Center. It was conducted to determine the level of effectiveness of the communicative competence of reviewers in Health force One Review Center; second, to present the level of performance of the reviewees in the tie Local-RN Board Examinations from the year 2007 to 2009; third, to find out what communication strategies were employed in the review process; and fourth, to determine what communicative program can be developed to improve the communicative competence of reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center. The hypotheses of the study is first, that the level of effectiveness of the communicative competence of the reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center is effective in the areas of Grammatical, Discourse, Strategic, and Socio-Linguistic Competence; and second, that there is an average level of performance of the reviewees of the Local-RN Board Examinations of Healthforce One Review Center for the past three years (2007-2009). To gather the data, the researcher floated a survey-questionnaire entitled, "Survey on Communicative Competences and Strategies". It was constructed through pre-interviews of the Healthforce One staff and related readings. The questionnaire was then distributed to three groups of respondents. First group is the sample of 45 reviewees who were enrolled in the second semester of the year 2010; second group consists of the six (6) core reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center; and lastly, the researcher herself. Upon completion of the research process, it is found that the level of effectiveness of the reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center is very effective in the areas of Communicative Competence, specifically, in the reviewers' Grammatical, Discourse, Strategic and Socio-Linguistic Competence. It is also found that the level of performance of the reviewees of the Local-RN Board Examinations of Healthforce One Review Center for the past three years (2007-2009) is above average. The research also found that the communication strategies employed by the reviewers of Healthforce One Review Center are Approximation, Word Coinage, Circumlocution, Literal Translation, Language Switch, Appeal for Assistance, Mime, Topic Avoidance and Message Abandonment. These, however, are ranked differently by the respondent groups. For the reviewees, Approximation and Appeal for Assistance is perceived as the most employed communication strategies. Reviewers perceive Appeal for Assistance and Mime as the most employed communication strategy; and the researcher perceives Appeal for Assistance and Literal Translation as the most utilized. All respondent groups perceive Topic Avoidance and Message Abandonment as the least observed strategy employed by the reviewers. These findings of the study have established that a good performance in state board examinations, such as the Nursing Board Examination, is brought about by the effective use of communication strategies in all areas of a reviewers' communicative competence. The findings also affirm that in order for an individual to have the global advantage in the Field of Nursing, he or she is to be competent in the use of the English language. If a nursing professional is proficient in English as to comprehension and critical thinking, he or she will be exemplary in the application and infusion of the communicative skill and the nursing practice. This gives acclaim to the Filipino nurses' success as professionals able to contribute their skills, knowledge and internationally-practiced methods to any point in the world serving families, communities, nations and mankind, in general. Based on the findings, the following conclusions are drawn: 1. It is therefore concluded that the reviewers of Healthforce One Review Center are highly competent as lecturers and teachers in the review programs. 2. It is therefore concluded that the quality of Healthforce One Review Center's Local-RN review program is first-rate because its system is based on established educational methods that facilitate effective learning and teaching. In addition, the review program grows and improves continuously. 3. It is therefore concluded that reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center employ communication strategies effectively by using methods that foster higher learning and critical thinking. These strategies present avenues for the reviewers to impart their expertise in the field of Nursing through sharing their knowledge and personal experiences to the reviewees in the review sessions. With the data gathered, analyzed and interpreted, the researcher respectfully recommends the following: 1. With the need to further upgrade the communicative competence of the reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center, a program should be developed to hasten Strategic Competency within the reviewers. This can be done by the program presented in number four. 2. Since Healthforce One Review Center offers quality review programs for the Local-RN Board Examination, the institution can venture into other licensure review programs such as the LET Board Examination, Engineering Board Examination, or the CPA Board Exam in order. This may be done in order to further upgrade the status of Filipino professionals in the various disciplines for employment locally and internationally. 3. Since Appeal for Assistance is perceived to be the most utilized and most preferred communication strategy, Healthforce One Review Center can create an avenue for reviewee-reviewer interaction. A reviewee blog site may be put up to provide interaction between reviewees and reviewers. This can also be beneficial to the review center as an avenue to post updates on relevant information reviewees may need. The blog site will even serve as Healthforce One's selling points and distinct quality. 4. To further upgrade the communicative competence, specifically, the Strategic Competence of the reviewers in Healthforce One Review Center, the following Communicative Program may be applied. It is to be noted that the specific examples of activities for each suggested program is found at the Appendix of this study. This study makes no claim to the conclusiveness of its findings. The quest for discovering the effectiveness of communicative competencies need further research for learning institutions, such as review centers, to fulfill its vision to assist individuals to the fulfillment of their career goals which will effectively contribute to the betterment of the society. It is through such educational goals that the field of teaching is made relevant to every individual in real-life settings.