1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the background information and the rationale for the study. It also introduces and describes the nature and the content of the study.
A. Background of Study
One occupation that enables people to meet various people from various backgrounds is as a nurse. The nurses working in hospitals always meet various
people including foreigners. As stated on www.gudegnet.comRumah-Sakit-Panti- Rapih.html 2009, a hospital which is recommended to check the health by
people in Yogyakarta is Panti Rapih Hospital since people in Yogyakarta believe that Panti Rapih Hospital is a good hospital. Hence, foreigners consider Panti
Rapih Hospital as the recommended hospital to help them to cure their illness and to maintain their health. Nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital need to be able to
communicate with English because they are enquired to provide best services to the foreigner patients.
Unfortunately, Fransiska Army who is a nurse in Panti Rapih Hospital stated that most of the nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital found some difficulties in
speaking and comprehending to the foreigners. The nurses encounter some difficulties to communicate with English. They can only utilize some sentences
that are regularly used in daily conversations such as ‘Good morning’, ‘What is your name?’, ‘How are you?’, etc. In general, there are two major problems
2 related to English. First, if foreigners come to ensure their health, the nurses
cannot comprehend what the foreigners want. The nurses just assume what the foreigners imply from the foreigners’ gesture. Second, when they have recognized
what the foreigners imply, they encounter some difficulties to explain clearly what the foreigners have to do.
Considering these problems, I concluded that it is important for the nurses to be able to communicate fluently with foreigners. Comprehending the meanings
of English sentences and giving information needed using correct sentence patterns are going to be the purpose of the designed material for nurses in Panti
Rapih Hospital. Listening is important to master because the nurses should be able to
comprehend what the foreigners indicate and want. When the nurses serve or treat the foreigners in the hospital, the nurses must comprehend the meanings uttered
by foreigners. The nurses surely do not want to acquire wrong information in order to avoid misinterpretation. Understanding the utterances of the foreigners is
also the important thing in obtaining some information from the foreigners. They should also master speaking skill in order to respond the foreigners and to convey
information correctly. Hence, I concluded that listening and speaking skill were the skills they needed to acquire.
Before conducting this study, I have read some studies of other research related to designing materials for nurses. In the first research on Designing a Set
of Integrated English Instructional Materials for the Second Semester Students of Notokusumo Academy of Nursing
written by RA. Marda Yuantika Haninggarjati PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3 2003, she made integrated materials for nurses studying at the nursing academy.
Other researches which also focus on designing materials for academic nurses are Yohanes Nanang Marjianto’s research 1999 on Designing a Set of English
Instructional Materials for the First Year Students of the Nursing Academy , Ella
Yuavita’s research 2006 on Designing a Set of Supplementary Reading Materials for the Students of Panti Rapih Nursing Academy
, and Pius Marmanta’s research 2005 on Designing English Instructional Speaking Materials for
Bethesda Nursing Academy Students .
From the previous study, I found that there is no one who developed English instructional materials for professional nurses and all researchers focus on
designing a set of instructional English materials for the students of nursing academy. Beside the information above, I discovered that most theses do not
provide the materials that are important to master by nurses. Based on the information obtained, I would like to develop English materials that are adjusted
to the nurses’ needs. Mateus Sujarwa as the Vice Director of Nursing Department stated that
nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital need to master listening and speaking skill since the nurses had to give best services to the patients and visitors including the
foreigners. He said that to be able to communicate well nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital had to master the listening and speaking skill. The materials which are
going to develop are different from the materials for the nursing academy. He said that the materials should give more practices in speaking English and in listening
to foreigners. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4 Mateus Sujarwa also stated that writing and reading skill were not really
important to master. Writing skill is rarely used since the front desk officers have organized any letters in English. When the nurses write the symptom, they will
write in Indonesian. If the patients ask, the nurses will explain orally. Reading skill is not considered as one of the important skills to master since the nurses will
read everything in Indonesian. Even though the instructions of medical tools in the hospital are written in English, the nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital have been
trained to use the tools. In this study, I will design integrated listening and speaking materials since
the nurses need to understand what the foreigners indicate and what they want. Moreover, the materials are purposed to make nurses fluent to communicate in
English. By having an ability to communicate in English, nurses in Panti Rapih Hospital have given a good service to the foreigners. The method of learning used
in developing English material for nurses is collaborative learning since this method provides the opportunity to practice English during the learning activities.
Collaborative learning is considered as the appropriate method since through this method the nurses are asked to study together. Through group learning, the nurses
will easily comprehend the designed materials so that they achieve the learning objectives easily. I hope the designed materials help the nurses to explore their
skills and learn more about English in health topics. The nurses who become the subjects of this study are the nurses who work
in the hospital because they have to master English in order to avoid the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5 misinterpretation between the nurses and the foreigners. These kinds of nurses
usually work in every department in the hospitals.
B. Research Limitation