Enhancement of Cognitive Abilities and Skills of Selected Public Secondary Professional Teachers in Handling Common Health Concerns through a School-Based Health and Safety Training Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The existing public-school nurse: learner ratio, various studies, statistics and related articles as well as the enthusiasm and interest of the researcher, both as a teacher and a school nurse, support the need for the conduct of this study. This study sought to determine the effects of a School-based Health and Safety Training Program on the cognitive abilities and skills in handling common health concerns of selected public secondary professional teachers.

METHODS

This study utilized the quasi-experimental design using the non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test design. Purposive sampling was used to ensure inclusion criteria were observed. The research was conducted in five (5) public secondary schools located in Trece Martires City, Cavite. To ensure that the study is ethically sound, approval was obtained from the Center for Academic Health Sciences Research and De La Salle Health Sciences Institute-Independent Ethics Committee. In the analysis of data, percentage, mean and t-test for the independent and dependent means were used as statistical treatments to answer to the specific problem statements.

RESULTS

There were significant differences between the cognitive abilities and skills in handling common health concerns of the respondents in the treatment group before and after the implementation of the School-based Health and Safety Training Program. Overall, it is clearly recognized that when the treatment group alone was measured, it resulted in a highly significant difference in the cognitive abilities and skills of the respondents after the intervention. Therefore, the School-based Health and Safety Training Program indeed had an effect on the respondents' cognitive abilities and skills in handling common health concerns.

DISCUSSIONS

With the reality of having a ratio of 1:10, 000 plus the ratio of nurse to learner’s population in the public education nowadays, it is highly recommended that other professionals, especially teachers be involved in catering to the health and safety needs of the learners by helping capacitate and empower them through the provision of training. Moreover, curriculum developers should include units of basic first aid and disaster preparedness in the undergraduate education courses to ensure that future educators will have sufficient entry level on technical know-how in handling learners with health and safety concerns. Also, teachers may utilize the health and safety training module as reference material. Lastly, the continuation of this study is highly recommended.