Path analysis of core competencies used to predict nurse job performance

Abstract

Objectives:To investigate what types of core competencies predict nurse job performance in a hospital. Methods:We used the "Nine Competencies Star" competency survey system, developed by the 1111 Job Bank in Taipei, to evaluate 1855 nurses from 3 hospitals in southern Taiwan. A t test was used to examine the mean differences between the 15 core competencies and demographic variables. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the number of factors. Path analysis was used to search for factors that affected nurse job performance in a hospital. Results:The core competencies of the nurses were team cohesion and customer (patient) relationships superior to the public norm. Four factors (teamwork, independence, communication, sympathy) were found and extracted from the 15 studied core competencies. The teamwork property alone predicts nurse job performance in a hospital. However, its predictive effect explains only 3% of the variance. Conclusions:The explicit core components should be periodically surveyed for healthcare workers to investigate whether the assessment of employee job performance has been closely associated with hospital policy that is beneficial both to the organization and to all of the patients.