Influence Of Social Support And Self-efficacy On Core Competency Of Clinical Nurses

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the current status and influencing factors of clinical nurses’ core competency,social support and self-efficacy,to analysis the correlation among these 3 variables,and to explore the influential mechanism of social support and self-efficacy on core competency,in order to provide constructive training strategy for nursing management and theoretical evidence for improving the quality of nursing service.MethodsA total of 600 clinical nurses from 3 general hospitals in Zhengzhou were selected with multistage stratified sampling method and assessed by General Information Questionnaire,Competency Inventory for Registered Nurse(CIRN),Social Support Revalued Scale(SSRS)and General Self-Efficacy Scale(GSES).SPSS20.0 was used for data input and statistical analysis.The statistical analysis methods include: descriptive statistics,independent sample t-test,ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis H-test,Pearson correlation analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis.SPSS PROCESS plug-in was used for Bootstrap intermediary effect test.Results1.The status of core competency,social support and self-efficacy for clinical nursesThe total score of core competency for clinical nurses is 166.45 ± 34.50,and the scores of the seven dimensions from high to low in turns are law/ethical practice(3.24±0.66),interpersonal relationships(2.97±0.68),leadership(2.93±0.66),education/consulting(2.92±0.72),professional development(2.89±0.67),clinical nursing(2.81±0.69),and critical thinking/ scientific research(2.44±0.65).The total score of social support for clinical nurses is 40.42 ± 6.76,which is higher than the domestic norm value and the difference has statistical significance(t=20.92,P﹤0.001).The scores of the three dimensions from high to low in turns are subjective support(22.89±4.28),objective support(9.34±2.79),and utilization of support(8.19±1.63).The total score of self-efficacy for clinical nurses is 2.64 ± 0.52,which is lower than the international norm value and the difference has statistical significance(t=-10.37,P﹤0.001).2.The relationship among core competency,social support and self-efficacy for clinical nursesThe social support is positively correlated with clinical nurses’ core competency(r=0.261,P﹤0.001).The self-efficacy is positively correlated with core competency(r=0.531,P﹤0.001).And the social support is positively correlated with self-efficacy(r=0.215,P﹤0.001).Self-efficacy has an intermediary effect between social support and core competency.The intermediary effect accounts for 41.3% of the total effect.3.The influencing factors of core competency,social support and self-efficacy for clinical nursesThe results of univariate analysis show that:(1)Hospital level,age,working years,professional title,teaching experience,continuing education experience,first degree,labor relations,marital status and family member attitude significantly influence the level of clinical nurses’ social support(P﹤0.01).(2)Professional title,continuing education experience and family member attitude significantly affect the level of self-efficacy of clinical nurses(P﹤0.05).(3)Hospital level,age,working years,professional title,teaching experience,continuing education experience,first degree,marital status and family member attitude have significant influences on clinical nurses’ core competency(P<0.05).The result of multiple regression analysis shows that the self-efficacy,subjective support in social support,continuing education experience,hospital level,and teaching experience are the main influencing factors of core competency of clinical nurses(P<0.05).Conclusions1.The core competency,social support and self-efficacy of clinical nurse are in the middle level.Among them,the critical thinking/ scientific research ability is the lowest,the score of self-efficacy is significantly lower than the international norm,and the score of social support is significantly higher than the domestic norm.2.There is a positive correlation between the scores of nurses’ core competency,social support and self-efficacy,and self-efficacy plays a partial mediating role between social support and core competency.3.The nursing managers should encourage clinical nurses to participate in clinical teaching activities and continuing education,improve their self-efficacy and social support level,which could ultimately enhance the core competency of clinical nurses.