Needs of English Skills of Thai Nurses Working in International Hospitals Accredited by JCI in Bangkok Area

Abstract

As the demand of turning Thailand to be the center of Medical Hub of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), English skills have been playing a vital role to designate the successful career path of many healthcare personnel especially nurses (Pandey and Sinhaneti, 2013). This study was aimed at investigating the current needs of English skills of Thai nurses working in 5 JCI-accredited hospitals in Bangkok namely Bangkok Hospital, Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital, Vejthani Hospital, BNH, and Phayathai2 International Hospital. 20 copies of the ethics approved questionnaire were randomly distributed to nurses in each hospital. After the process of accidental sampling, arithmetic means of 100 participants in terms of hours communicating in English per week (  ≥42.6) or number of English speaking patients they talk to per week (  ≥22.6) or other qualifications which are defiable as ‘good English skills’ were applied for selecting samples of the study. Needs of English skills from 63 samples who met the criteria were analyzed by arithmetic means, standard deviation, and interpreted by 5-point Likert scale. The study revealed that nurses who were considered the primary medical coordinator between patients and physicians had rated listening as the communicative skill most needed and ‘listening to patient’s history, symptoms, and requests’ was the function highest needed of this modality. Other skills including speaking, reading, and writing were also needed at ‘high’ level in which ‘asking patients about their chief complaints and symptoms, ‘reading physician’s orders’ and ‘writing various medical forms’ were functions needed highest of each modality respectively. By looking at needs of the course book, the participants needed all skills to be focused in the book as each function in nursing profession requires different skill to be performed.