Objectives Investigation of potential erroneous behavior in the general public's use of face masks during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Design We conducted a naturalistic observational study in the period from April to June 2020. Sample In two western Austrian provinces, a total of 2080 persons were observed in front of 24 grocery stores. Measurement The frequencies and types of erroneous behavior in the use of face masks were collected using a standardized observation form. Results A total of 2080 persons were observed. Almost one‐third of all observations ( n = 648; 31.2%) showed erroneous behavior before positioning the face masks. Another 935 (45.0%) persons touched the face mask front during the adjustment via mouth and nose, 501 (24.1%) persons touched the face mask front in the period after the adjustment. A total of 116 (5.6%) persons showed erroneous behavior in each sequence of the observation unit. Overall, almost half of all people observed showed at least one erroneous behavior within the observation period. Conclusions The behavior of the general public in handling face masks is highly error‐prone. Decision makers must increasingly provide accompanying information and educational measures in order to encourage the population at risk to use face masks correctly.

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The assessment of nursing-related competences by suitable instruments has become more relevant. Internationally, applicable instruments have been developed. The German-language version of the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale seems to be appropriate to measure competences of registered nurses in Austria. The psychometric properties of the scale have not been tested so far. The aim of this study was to examine the content validity of the German version of the NPC Scale. A mixed methods design was applied. Qualitative data were summarized by interpretative-reductive technique; the content validity index (CVI) was used to analyze the quantitative data. Data interpretation was performed by merging the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis. As a result of the content analysis, five categories were determined to summarize the comments and critique. These categories referred to insufficient precision of terms and items, lacking profile-specific scale content to the theoretical construct of nursing-related competences, missing adequacy of the scale for the use in all nursing-related settings, and annotations for the revision of single items. Quantitative analysis showed 85 of 88 items as content valid by computing each single item. The dimension-specific CVI/Averages ranged between 0.90 and 0.97, the CVI/Average for the whole scale was 0.93. After merging the results of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the NPC Scale can actually not be evaluated as a content valid instrument for assessing nursing-related competences in an Austrian context. Substantial item-specific and dimension-specific deficiencies imply that competences cannot be thoroughly assessed. A substantial contentual revision of the current German version of the NPC Scale is recommended.

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Background and objective: In the countries of the European Union, more than three million registered nurses take responsibility for health care in various acute- and long-term settings. The development of nursing competence and its continuous evaluation are part of the European strategy to ensure high-quality health care. Transnational standards in the education of nurses intend to ensure the advancement of competent nurses. However, competence is a multifactorial construct that does not solely rely on formal qualifications. Experience, contextual conditions, knowledge and skills as well as values, norms and rules are defined as critical components of competence. Thus, the aim of this scoping review was to identify factors that influence the nursing competence of RNs in countries of the European Union.Methods: A scoping review following the guidelines of Joanna Briggs Institute was conducted. Quantitative studies assessing nursing competence by psychometrically tested instruments and exploring respective influence factors were searched in electronically databases (Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Medline, DOAJ, ERIC, Academic Search Elite, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, CareLit). Extracted study results were deductively structured with reference to theoretically reasonable factors of competence. Results: A total of sixteen studies were included in this scoping review. Most studies were conducted in Northern European countries. Experience (operationalized as age and years of working as a registered nurse), professional nursing context, type of nursing education, non-formal acquisition of nursing-specific knowledge as well as experiencing workplace autonomy, high quality of care and empowerment all influence the competence of registered nurses.Conclusions: For most European countries, there are neither scientific data on nursing competence nor on its influencing factors available. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering factors that influence nursing competence in the course of systemic policy-making on nursing development as well as on organizational nursing governance. We strongly suggest the conduct of longitudinal studies in further countries of the European Union to gain further insights on nursing competence and to explore the impact of its influencing factors.