A Nationwide E-learning Program in Suicide Prevention for the Nurses in Taiwan

10.6145/jme201504

Chia-Yi Wu；Ming-Been Lee；Shih-Cheng Liao；Heng-Shuen Chen；For-Wey Lung

e-learning ； gatekeepers ； nursing education ； suicide prevention ； Taiwan

Journal of Medical Education

19卷1期（2015 / 03 / 01）

31 - 41

英文

Purpose: The majority of baccalaureate-prepared nurses may not be well-educated with fundamental skills to care for patients with suicide risks. However, the nurses play a crucial role as gatekeepers for suicide prevention. As such, the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center developed an online suicide education program for the practicing nurses. The present study aimed to evaluate the use of e-learning as an efficient way to teach gatekeeper strategy and suicide prevention knowledge and skills for the nurses. Methods: Between June 2013 and December 2014, twenty e-learning courses were presented online for the target population of 137,026 practicing nurses in Taiwan. Each course lasted for about 40-60 minutes, followed by questions inquiring about the nurses' satisfaction, overall positive feedback from the course, and their willingness to be a gatekeeper or to promote the ＂Mood Thermometer＂ (i.e., five-item Brief Symptoms Rating Scale, BSRS-5) after finishing related courses. The degree of satisfaction and learning feedback were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale and the results were analyzed by descriptive statistics (i.e. number of hits; mean, standard deviation and percentage of scaled items). Results: In total, there were 12,966 persons who participated in the 20 online courses during the study period. The number of participants for each course was ranged between 2,818 and 9,333 nurses. All the courses received 4.36-4.58 points of ratings on satisfaction and learning feedback (5 point as the highest score) from participating nurses. As a whole, over 90% of nurses were satisfied with each course and would promote the BSRS- 5 or act as gatekeepers in the future. The profile of the average number of the learners per course by month indicated a three-month peak usage, which effect was in accordance with the promotion of nursing license renewal policy. Conclusion: E-learning suicide education is highly recommendable for nurses working in different areas, and the utilization of online media would be more widespread under policy promotion. Further assessment method is needed to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning media for suicide prevention training.

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1. Chia-Ta Chan;Chia-Yi Wu;Ming-Been Lee;Chun-Ying Chen;I-Ming Chen;Chia-Ming Chang(2023)。Outcome Evaluation of an Online Suicide Prevention Program for Postgraduate Year Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-2022)。Journal of Medical Education。27(1)。75-87。