Aim and objective This study was to establish an index system for the evaluation of Chinese infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence. Background The index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence has not been established. Design A two-round Delphi survey was conducted to seek opinions from experts about the index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence. Methods The study adopted several research methods, including literature retrieval, theoretical analysis and qualitative research. Based on the above method, the draft of core competence evaluation index system of infectious disease specialist nurses was constructed. A Delphi survey was used for the study of 30 infectious disease experts from 8 provinces and cities around China. A modified recommendation for the Conducting and Reporting of Delphi studies (CREDES) was also used to guide this study. A STROBE checklist was used. Results The Core Competence Evaluation Index System of Infectious Disease Nurses is composed of 6 primary indicators, namely, Nursing Abilities for Infectious Diseases, Infection Prevention and Control Abilities, Responsiveness to Infectious Diseases, Professional Development Abilities, Communication and Management Abilities, and Professionalism and Humanistic Accomplishment, 16 secondary indicators and 47 tertiary indicators. The authority coefficient, judgment coefficient and familiarity degree of Delphi experts were 0.923, 0.933 and 0.913 respectively. Conclusions The evaluation index system of core competence of diseases specialist nurses is scientific and reliable. It can be reference for future training and assessment of Chinese infectious disease specialist nurses. Relevance to clinical practice Infectious disease specialist nurses are the main force for infectious disease nursing. Their core competence is related to the quality of infectious disease nursing and treatment. The core competence of the nurses is important for identification of training strategies and can be regarded as reference for nurse assessment and promotion. The construction of the index system is based on the consensus of infectious disease experts, which is not only helpful to standardize the training strategies and selection standards of infectious disease specialist nurses in the future, but also meet the society’s needs in clinical infectious disease nursing.

Aim This study aims to develop an instrument to measure infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence and examining the scale’s validity and reliability. Background With the increase of infectious diseases, more and more attention has been paid to infectious disease nursing care. The core competence of the infectious disease specialist nurses is directly related to the quality of nursing work. In previous researches, infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence was measured by the tools developed for general nurses instead of specialized tools, which made it difficult to clarify the core competence of nurses in infectious diseases department. Methods Preliminary items were developed through literature review, theoretical research, qualitative interview and Delphi method. The confirmed 47 items were applied in the two rounds of data collection. Evaluation data on 516 infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence in the first round were utilized to preliminarily evaluate and explore the scale’s constrution, while evaluation data on 497 infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence in the second round were utilized to do reliability analysis and validity analysis. In this study, factor analysis, Cronbach’s α, Pearson correlation coefficients were all adopted. Results The final scale is composed of 34 items and 5 factors, and adopted the 5-point scoring method. The factors are Professional Development Abilities, Infection Prevention and Control Abilities, Nursing Abilities for Infectious Diseases, Professionalism and Humanistic Accomplishment, and Responsiveness to Emergency Infectious Diseases. The explanatory variance of the five factors was 75.569%. The reliability and validity of the scale is well validated. The internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability were 0.806, 0.966 and 0.831 respectively. The scale has good structural validity and content validity. The content validity was 0.869. Discrimination analysis showed that there were significant differences in the scores of core competence and its five dimensions among infectious disease specialist nurses of different ages, working years in infectious diseases, titles, educational background, marital status and wages (all P < 0.05). Conclusions The proposed scale takes on high reliability and validity, and is suitable for assessing the infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence. Relevance to clinical practice This scale provides a reference for clinical assessment of infectious disease nursing.

There has been some research conducted regarding nurses’ career success aimed at exploring its influencing factors, but there is no research on the mechanism of self-identity on the career success of infection control nurses. In order to further explore the formation mechanism of career success of nurses, we conducted our study using the Kaleidoscope Career Model to explore the chain-mediating effects of cognitive emotion regulation and social support between self-identity and career success. Five hundred forty-seven infection control nurses from nine different hospitals participated in the study and completed questionnaires on the self-identity, cognitive emotion regulation, social support, and career success scales. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that self-identity has a positive effect on positive emotion regulation and social support and a negative impact on negative emotion regulation. Positive (negative) emotion regulation has a positive (negative) effect on social support. All antecedents have a positive impact on career success except negative emotion regulation, which has a negative one. Bootstrap analysis shows that the relationship between self-identity and career success is partially mediated by the chain of cognitive emotion regulation and social support. Overall, our research sheds light on the mechanism of self-identity on career success of nurses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Aim: This study aimsto develop an instrument to measure infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence and examining the scale’s validity and reliability.Background: With the increase of infectious diseases, more and more attention has been paid to infectious disease nursing care. The core competence of the infectious disease specialist nurses is directly related to the quality of nursing work. In previous researches, infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence was measured bythe tools developed for general nursesinstead of specialized tools, which made it difficult to clarify the core competence of nurses in infectious diseases department.Methods: Preliminary items were developed through literature review, theoretical research, qualitative interview and Delphi method. The confirmed 47 items were applied in the two rounds of data collection. Evaluation data on 516 infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence in the first round were utilized to preliminarily evaluate and explore the scale’s constrution, whileevaluation data on 497 infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence in the second round were utilized to doreliability analysis and validity analysis. In this study, factor analysis, Cronbach's a, Pearson correlation coefficients were all adopted.Results: The final scaleis composed of 34 items and 5 factors, and adoptedthe 5-point scoring method. The factors areProfessional Development Abilities, Infection Prevention and Control Abilities, Nursing Abilities for Infectious Diseases, Professionalism and Humanistic Accomplishment, and Responsiveness to Emergency Infectious Diseases.The explanatory variance of the five factors was 75.569%. The reliability and validity of the scale is well validated.The internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability were 0.806, 0.966 and 0.831 respectively.The scale has good structural validity and content validity. The content validity was 0.869. Discrimination analysisshowed that there were significant differences in the scores of core competence and its five dimensions among infectious disease specialist nurses of different ages, working years in infectious diseases, titles, educational background, marital status and wages (all P< 0.05).Conclusions:The proposed scale takes on high reliability and validity,and is suitable for assessing the infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence.Relevance to clinical practice: This scale provides a reference for clinical assessment of infectious disease nursing.

Aim and objective: To establish an index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurse core competence.Background: An index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurse core competence has not been established.Design: A two-round Delphi survey sought opinions from experts about the index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurse core competence.Methods: Based on the methods of literature retrieval, theoretical analysis and qualitative research, the draft of core competence evaluation index system of infectious disease specialist nurses was constructed. A Delphi survey was used for the study of 30 infectious disease experts from 8 provinces and cities around China. A modified recommendation for the Conducting and Reporting of Delphi studies (CREDES) was used to guide this study. A STROBE checklist was used.Results: The evaluation index system of core competence of diseases specialist nurses is composed of 6 primary indicators which includes Nursing Abilities for infectious diseases, Infection Prevention and Control Capabilities, Capabilities in Response to Infectious Disease, Professional Development Capabilities, Communication and Management Capabilities and Professionalism and Humanistic Accomplishment, 16 secondary indicators and 47 tertiary indicators. The authority coefficient, judgment coefficient and familiarity degree of Delphi experts were 0.923, 0.933 and 0.913 respectively.Conclusions: The evaluation index system of core competence of diseases specialist nurses is scientific and reliable. It can be reference for future training and assessment of infectious disease specialist nurses.Relevance to clinical practice: Infectious disease specialist nurses are the main force for infectious disease nursing. Their core competence is related to the quality of infectious disease nursing and treatment. The core competence of the nurses is important for identification of training strategies and can be regarded as reference for nurse assessment and promotion. The construction of the index system is based on the consensus of infectious disease experts, which is helpful to standardize the training strategies and selection standards of infectious disease specialist nurses in the future and meet the needs of clinical infectious disease nursing.