THE LEVEL OF NURSES' CLINICAL COMPETENCE WITH BACHELOR'S AND MASTER'S DEGREES WORKING IN URMIA HOSPITALS IN 2024

The purpose of upgrading academic degrees in universities/colleges of nursing is to improve the clinical qualification of nurses to provide specialized services. However, there are conflicting findings about the success rate of the postgraduate education system in improving the qualifications of nurses. This study was conducted with the aim of determining and comparing the clinical competence of nurses with B.Sc and M.Sc degrees working in Urmia hospitals in 2024.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 74 nurses with B.Sc and 74 with M.Sc degrees working in the Urmia hospitals in 2024. The data were collected using the questionnaire aof Competency Inventory for Registered Nurses (CIRN) developed by Liu et al. (2009) and analyzed using SPSS software ver. 22.0.

The results showed no significant difference between quantitative and qualitative variables among the B.Sc and M.Sc nurses. The mean clinical competence score for B.Sc. nurses was 137.76 ± 34.75, and for M.Sc. nurses was 153.95 ± 38.56. This mean difference was significant in all dimensions of clinical competence except for the clinical care dimension (P<0.05).

It seems that part of the goals of the relevant ministry regarding the improvement of the clinical competence of senior nursing experts have been achieved. However, due to the moderate level of qualification and the lack of significant differences in clinical care, the researcher suggests that planning and policies should focus on enriching nursing education at the master's level, including conducting comparative research and revising the training program using expert trainers.