Professional competence of Thai nursing graduates

The purposes of this comparative and correlational descriptive study were to assess expectations of competence and perceptions of actual professional competence of Thai nursing graduates and to examine the relationships among variables hypothesized to affect academic achievement and graduates' perceptions of competence. Data from a convenient sample of 468 new graduates and 191 nursing faculty in 6 nursing schools, and 632 practicing nurses in 2 hospitals in Thailand were analyzed. An instrument measuring professional competence was developed based on the Thai Nursing Council (TNC) competence statements. The instrument was developed in English, translated to Thai, and sent to a group of experts for validation. After some modifications based on expert opinion, it was mailed to graduates, faculty and practicing nurses.;Differences among three groups were found on both professional values and clinical competence and for both expectation of competence and perceptions of new graduate actual competence. Graduate expectations and perceptions of actual competence were higher than those of faculty and nurse. Faculty expectations were higher than those of practicing nurses whereas the perceptions of actual competence were similar in both groups. Graduates who failed the licensure examination rated their actual competence higher than those who passed the licensure examination. The relationships of six explanatory variables (presence of a healthcare provider in the family, prior healthcare experience, hardiness, student effort, perception of student-faculty relationships and perception of clinical learning environment) on academic achievement and graduates' perception of competence were examined for all cases as well as clusters based on similarity of school and faculty characteristics. Although hardiness, perception of clinical learning experience and student effort consistently impacted graduates' perception of competence for all clusters, the model did not explain a large portion of the variance of outcome variables. Student effort and program GPA reliably predicted failure on the licensure examination. Graduates who had high program GPA and student effort scores were less likely to fail the licensure examination. Implications for nursing and recommendations for further research were discussed.