Study On Clinical Nurse Competency Of General Hospital

This study aimed to extract and classify clinical nurse competency elements ofGeneral Hospital, to carry out empirical research and analyze factors that affect theclinical competency of nurses, and to provide reference for nursing human resourcesmanagement in General Hospital and conducting more thorough study of the clinicalnurse competency.The literature analysis, text analysis, critical incident technique were used toextract nurse competency elements; the nurse competency elements weredetermined and classified by the Delphi method; nurse competency self-assessmentquestionnaire was prepared to carry out the empirical research; tested the reliability ofthe questionnaire by calculating Cronbach’s coefficient, and assessed the validity ofthe questionnaire by correlation analysis; studied factors that affect the clinicalcompetency of nurses through factor analysis of variance.There were five identified first level factors of clinical nurse competency ofThree Level of First-class General Hospital, including:"knowledge","expertise","social competency","personal qualities","motivation"; and there were twenty-eightidentified secondary level elements, including:"nursing expertise","multi-disciplinary knowledge in the medical field","knowledge of humanities andsocial sciences","clinical nursing expertise","research and innovation capacity","teaching skills","foreign communication skills","independence","self-learningability","interpersonal understanding and communication skills","ability to buildrelationships","teamwork","self-control and management capabilities","conceptualthinking ability","analytical thinking ability","flexible","management","leadership","self-assessment capability","focus on quality and safety","information-seekingability","professional values and attitudes","initiative","optimism and confidence","fitness","achievement motivation","altruistic motives","organization permissionconsciousness". The subjective self-assessment of clinical nurse competency of Three Level of First-class General Hospital in Beijing displayed that surveyed clinicalnurses’ self-assessment mean score was210.87, reaching a value of75.32%out of thetotal score; the average level of first level factors was in the range between6.98~7.68, and was equivalent to70%~78%out of the corresponding dimension values.Self-assessment mean score of secondary level elements was in the range between5.42~8.28, and the discrepancy of self-assessment score in different elements wasobvious. There were significant differences in the overall score and the score for eachfirst level factors between the group of40years of age and the group of aged40andabove, and the latter was higher than the former in the average. The overall score andthe score for each first level factors of clinical nurses who had less than15years ofwork experience and junior titles were lower than who had the working life of morethan15years and intermediate and above titles. There only was significant differenceon the score of knowledge of clinical nurse with different educational background;and the score of Bachelor degree and above clinical nurse was higher than Collegeand less educated clinical nurse. There was significant difference in the knowledgefactor score between specialist nurses and non-specialist nurses; and the former washigher than the latter. The scores on the three dimensions, which were"knowledge","expertise" and "social competency", of the clinical nurse in N2leveland below were lower than the clinical nurse in N3level and above. The reliabilitytest result of the "The competency level self-rating scale of Three Level of First-classGeneral Hospital clinical nurse" showed that the overall and each first level factors’sCronbach’s alpha values were greater than0.85, split-half reliability coefficient wasbetween0.890~0.933. The construct validity test showed the overall and each firstlevel factors’s relative coefficients were all greater than0.75.The first level factors, the secondary level elements and their classification weredetermined through literature analysis, text analysis, critical incident interviews andthe Delphi method; among the secondary level elements, sixteen were belonging tobasic competency and twelve were belonging to development competency. Thesubjective self-assessment of clinical nurse competency of four Three Level ofFirst-class General Hospital displayed that the self-evaluation of the individual was overall good, and the clinical nurses considered themselves competent for current job;but there was some discrepancy of surveyed clinical nurses’ self-assessment score indifferent elements. Age, education, work experience, job level, job title, and beingspecialist nurses or not were the main factors that affect nurse competency assessmentscore."The competency level self-rating scale of Three Level of First-class GeneralHospital clinical nurse" was with good reliability and validity, which can be used tothe competency self-assessment study of Three Level of First-class General Hospitalclinical nurse.