Graduate Tracer Study of the Faculty of Nursing University of Tripoli, Libya: An Evidenced-Based Information for Curriculum Update and its Implications in Quality Assurance

The Faculty of Nursing ensures the quality of education it provides is suitable to the health needs to meet the demands and challenges of health care in the country. Deemed to produce future nursing leaders and educators, the faculty has undertaken its first graduate tracer study.
Graduate tracer studies obtain both intrinsic and extrinsic results and benefits. Intrinsic results can be used to point at areas for improvement in study programs and service delivery at universities. The study, based on the Commission on Higher Education-adapted survey questionnaire filled in by the Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates batch 2011-2017. With descriptive-normative research design and snowball sampling technique, smoothed the way for 126 respondents out of 189 graduates. Data showed a predominance of females over males, single over married, mostly within 2528 years of age. Majority were employed as full time in a government health facility, as well as with satisfaction in their work as a nurse ascribable to monetary remuneration. The job placement rate of the graduates is 65%, filling in the shortage of nurses in Libya. The competency-based curriculum is consistent, aligned and relevant to the nursing job requirements in Libya. Accorded well to the World Health Organization’s patient safety curriculum, ‘Safe and Quality Nursing Care’ competency appraised as the most used in their area of nurse work. Followed by ‘communication’, ‘human relations’, ‘research’, ‘problem solving’, and ‘leadership’. ‘Critical thinking’ however deemed as least used competency in the care of patients.
The study recommends regular graduates tracking, further curriculum development and policy on educational achievement as one of the criteria for remuneration. Furthermore, researches on topics related to extent of knowledge and application of the learned competencies in nursing education, employability and the employers’ preferences on employability of the graduates, job satisfaction and its factors among graduates and competencies used by nurse-employed and non-nurse employed nursing graduates. Lastly, an assessment of the faculty’s program and learning is essential for teaching innovations’ upgrade and development not to disregard strategies to improve critical thinking abilities and use among nurses in their area of practice. This is to achieve the end goal of this present study, to entrench quality assurance within the faculty from the evidenced-information in distinction to the voice of its graduates.