Actual and Ideal Entrustable Professional Activities of Newly Graduated Nurses in Thailand as Perceived by Both Educators and Users

This descriptive research aimed to study both the perceived Actual and expected Ideal levels of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) across a range of skills required of new nurses in Thailand (graduated within the past 2 years). The instrument used is a questionnaire consisting of 147 specific EPAs scored on a 5-point Likert scale. 15 experienced nurses (users) and 15 graduate program instructors (nurse educators) were asked to provide Actual scores in line with their overall perceptions of the level demonstrated by newly graduated nurses for each of the EPAs in actual practice. The same participants were also asked to provide Ideal scores in line with their overall expectations of the level for each of the EPAs that should be held upon graduation. To collect the data from all 30 participants (15 users and 15 nurse educators), the Delphi technique was used. Data analysis was conducted via median and paired t-test. The results show that the Actual EPAs were most commonly perceived to be at a level 4, followed by levels 3, 5, and 2, respectively. None of the participants perceived any of the EPAs to be at level 1. The perspectives of the users and the nurse educators show that expected Ideal levels of EPAs among the new nurses is consistently higher than Actual levels with a statistical significance at the level of 0.01. In conclusion, for the safety of clients, nurses measuring below an Actual level 4 should receive more practice before being released to work with patients, both in educational institutions and in clinics.