Nurses' professional values and competency in Saudi Arabia: A structural equation modelling approach

Abstract

Aims and objectives:To explore the relationship between Saudi nurses' professional values and competence.Background: Professionals are bound by ethical standards specific to their profession.Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic is the most significant event that has impacted nurses' professional values and competency.Design: A descriptive cross-sectional design adhering to STROBE guidelines. Methods: Clinical nurses from four tertiary government hospitals (n = 659) participated and completed two self-report instruments. Study variables were analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. Results: The emerging model displayed acceptable model fit indices. Professionalism and activism were two dimensions of nurse professional values that significantly impacted professional competency. Professionalism significantly impacted the four other aspects of nurse professional values: caring, activism, trust, and justice. Caring had a significant and direct impact on activism. Activism had a weak, direct effect on trust, whereas justice had a moderate, direct effect on trust. Through the mediation of the dimension of activism, both the dimensions of professionalism and caring had a strong, indirect impact on professional competency. Conclusions: This research presents a structural model of the interrelationship between nurse professional values and competency. Nurse administrators can use the proposed model to develop approaches and policies for assessing, improving and evaluating professional values among nurses. Relevance for Clinical Practice: Nursing professionals are committed to upholding their ethical and moral standards while performing their caregiver roles. Nurse administrators can implement activities and strategies to develop nurses' professional competence further, as professional values represent the ideal values expected of nurses providing patient care.

Moral courage, burnout, professional competence, and compassion fatigue among nurses

“…45 Professionally competent nurses can utilize good communication skills and leadership and management abilities to promote a positive work environment and good teamwork and relationships. 6,11 To add to this, professionally competent nurses can employ appropriate communication skills, moral values, and ethical principles to convey compassion and empathy in their actions without integrating with the patient's suffering, which can lead to countertransference, burnout, and compassion. 44,46 Results also showed that burnout positively affected compassion fatigue but negatively and directly affected moral courage.…”

“…Professionally competent nurses develop the ability to go beyond the norm, legalities, and regulations in their profession and develop ethical and scientific competence and moral behaviors necessary during stressful situations in the workplace. 1,6 By transcending towards a morally and ethically proper behavior and practice, they empowered nurses to become capable of advancing their internal capacity to behave and enact according to correct and ideal principles, 1,11 thus, maintaining their identity as healthcare professionals and perform their roles and responsibilities efficiently and compassionately without compromising their emotional and psychological well-being. It is, therefore, essential to promote moral courage among nurses by implementing appropriate interventions, programs, and policies.…”

“…In addition, professionalism also influences nursing values, including care, advocacy, trust, and justice. 6 Despite the significance of these topics, only a few available studies have exhaustively examined them. In these investigations, only a single or two of these concepts were investigated.…”

“…In order for a nurse to be able to withstand both the ethical and professional challenges of the job, a nurse’s moral courage should be evaluated to identify the depth of their intrinsic professional values. 5,6 The COVID-19 pandemic further tested nurses' determination to act responsibly when moral values are questioned. 3 Even before the pandemic, nurses' moral courage had been an ongoing concern for nursing leaders looking to improve their staff’s working conditions and prevent burnout.…”

“…In addition, professionalism also influences nursing values, including care, advocacy, trust, and justice. 6…”