Clinical competency of nurses working at Intensive Care Units and its associated factors

Clinical competency is one of the performance indicators of nurses requiring the use of technical and communication skills, knowledge, clinical reasoning, emotions, and professional values at the bedside. The present study’s aim was to assess the clinical competency of nurses working at intensive care units (ICUs) and explore some of its associated factors in hospitals affiliated with the Golestan University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on ICU nurses working at the hospitals affiliated with the Golestan University of Medical Sciences in the northeast of Iran. A total of 160 eligible nurses were recruited using the simple random sampling method. The data were collected through the Intensive and Critical Care Nursing Competence Scale (ICCN-CS), which evaluates the 4 areas of knowledge, skill, attitudes and values, and work experience via 80 statements. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests at a significance level of 5%.

Most of the participants (69.2%) attained an excellent clinical competency score, and the overall level of clinical competency was excellent. Also, the highest level of competency belonged to the knowledge area (85.11 ± 82.63), and the lowest level was related to the field of skills (80.40± 17.19). Clinical competency showed a significant association with demographic features, including age (P<0.001), type of contract (P<0.001), work experience (P<0.001), marital status (P<0.001), and average overtime hours (P<0.003).

Evaluation of nurses’ clinical competency can help improve the quality of care. It is suggested that health policymakers focus on upgrading the clinical competency of ICU nurses by improving their clinical skills.