Development And Preliminary Application Of A Medication Competence Evaluation Scale For Nurses

ObjectiveBased on the theory of role and the theory of nurses’ core competence,combined with literature research and expert correspondence,the evaluation tool of nurses’ medication competence was developed to provide an operational quantitative tool for the evaluation of nurses’ medication competence.A scientific and comprehensive scale for evaluating nurses’ medication competence was developed and used for preliminary evaluation.MethodsA research team was established to sort out and analyze the current research status,research progress and latest research results of nurses’ medication competence at home and abroad through literature review.On this basis,combined with the semi-structured interview results,an entry pool of nurses’ medication competence evaluation scale was initially formed.Two rounds of expert letter consultation were conducted for 20 experts who met the inclusion criteria,the scale items were revised according to expert suggestions and statistical results,and the initial scale for evaluation of nurses’ medication competence was formed.The convenience sampling method was used to select 374 nurses from a tertiary first-class hospital in Dalian city who met the inclusion criteria to fill in the initial scale.The resulting data were statistically analyzed by critical ratio method,correlation coefficient method and Cronbach’s α coefficient method,and items were screened again to form the evaluation scale.Convenience sampling method was adopted to select 771 nurses from 6 tertiary first-class hospitals in Dalian city who met the inclusion criteria for investigation.Internal consistency reliability,split half reliability,retest reliability were used to test scale reliability,content validity,structure validity and criterion validity.Finally,the evaluation scale of nurse medication competence was formed.Results1.After expert letter consultation,the effective recoveries of the two rounds of letter consultation questionnaires were 84.00% and 100.00%,respectively.The degree of expert enthusiasm was high,and the expert authority coefficients were 0.87 and0.88,respectively,meeting the statistical requirements.The coordination coefficients of the two rounds of survey experts for each item of the scale were 0.204 and 0.234,respectively,P < 0.01,indicating that the expert opinions tended to be consistent and the expert opinions had good coordination.2.According to the results of expert letter consultation and group discussion,an evaluation scale of nurse medication competence composed of 11 dimensions and 50 items was formed,and its reliability and validity were tested.The content validity index of the total table is 0.9898,and the content validity index of each item is 0.83 ～1.00.Eleven common factors were identified by the exploratory factor molecule,which accounted for 86.525% of the variation.The correlation coefficient between the total volume table and each dimension was 0.450 ～ 0.929,P < 0.01.The correlation coefficients of the scale and its dimensions with the Competency Inventory for Registered Nurse were 0.938 and 0.636 ～ 0.904,respectively,P < 0.01.The reliability test results showed that the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the total volume table was0.975,the Cronbach’s α coefficient of each dimension of the scale was 0.880 ～ 0.977,and the retest reliability of the scale was 0.721 ～ 0.875.3.The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the scores of clinical nurses’ medication competence among the groups with different gender,highest educational background and personnel relationship(P>0.05);There were significant differences in the scores of medication competence among nurses of different ages,marital status,working years,departments,initial education,professional title,salary and hospital type(P<0.05).Conclusion1.The evaluation scale of nurses’ medication competence compiled in this study included 11 dimensions,including pharmacological knowledge,medication management competence,medication evaluation ability,medication order checking and execution competence,clinical practice competence,information technology application competence,educational consulting competence,communication and coordination competence,scientific research and learning competence,ethical and legal practice competence,quality management and risk management competence.50 items,with good reliability and validity,can be used to evaluate the medication competence of nurses,and provide evaluation tools and basis for nursing managers to grasp the actual medication competence level of nurses and implement medication related training,which has certain clinical promotion value.2.Nurses’ medication competence is at the middle level.Working years,departments,and hospital types are important factors affecting nurses’ medication competence.Nursing managers should conduct targeted training and management for nurses according to working years and departments.