Self-assessed competence among nurses working in municipal health-care services in Norway

Abstract

Demands made on nursing staff are expanding and changing, requiring a broad set of competencies that require evaluation and enhancement in places. This study used the Nurse Competence Scale to measure self-assessed competence among nurses working in three municipal health-care services in Norway. Results indicate that nurses perceive their competence as being satisfactory overall, but there are areas that would benefit from improvement: providing patients' family members with education and guidance, quality assurance, and using research to evaluate and develop services. These competencies could be the focus of departments' future competence plans. The Nurse Competence Scale can be used to assess the impact of training and the efficacy of competence-enhancing actions.

Evaluating nursing competence with the Nurse Competence Scale from an ontological and contextual point of view: An integrative literature review

“…Competence increased in all categories and items except in using research evidence to develop care in the units. 56 Also, frequency of use correlated with the estimated level of competence, 14,22–27,32,34,36,40,46,50,51 as did the possibilities to participate in further education, good nursing equipment, good leadership and support and permanent employment. 26,36,37…”

“…Competence increases with experience, 45,53,55,56 as shown in the study by Lima et al 55 The overall Competence increased in all categories and items except in using research evidence to develop care in the units. 56 Also, frequency of use correlated with the estimated level of competence, 14,[22][23][24][25][26][27]32,34,36,40,46,50,51 as did the possibilities to participate in further education, good nursing equipment, good leadership and support and permanent employment. 26,36,37 The nurse managers seemed to evaluate the level of competence of nurses higher than the nurses themselves 30,36,46 except in the study by Bahreini et al, 57 where the head nurses evaluated the nurses' competence lower in every category (see Table 3).…”

“…Newly graduated nurses rated the Helping role highest. 14,34,56 Both experienced nurses and newly graduated nurses mainly evaluated their competence in the Helping role from to be good 14,[25][26][27]30,31,34,41,42,45,46,51,53,56 to very good 43,45,46,53,57 increasing with experience. In the experimental study, 59 at the start the students' competence in the Helping role was on a rather good level in the intervention group, but increased to a good level after the intervention.…”

Factors influencing nursing competence of registered nurses in the European Union: A scoping review

“…The 16 included studies were conducted between 2004 and 2020 in six different European countries, with a more than four-fifths (n = 13; 81.3%) of all studies being allocated to the Northern European region (see Table 1). A total of 14 (87.5%) [33,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] studies explored nursing competence and its influencing factors using cross-sectional designs, while two studies (11.8%) conducted cohort studies to evaluate the development of nursing competence. [61,62] The sample sizes varied between 45 RNs [62] and 2083 RNs [58] in the respective studies.…”

Integration of nursing services provided to patients with heart failure living at home: A longitudinal ethnographic study

“…The trend towards shortened hospital stays and increased community services has also turned people's attention to primary care staff's knowledge and competencies. Some people have, for example, expressed concern about community health nurses’ competencies (Bing‐Jonsson et al, 2016; Hovland et al, 2018). Studies have also found that home care nurses need improved competence to detect deterioration in health and organise holistic care (Vatnøy et al, 2019).…”