Determinants of nurses’ self-reported professional competence in Jordan

Abstract

Background: Nurses play a vital part of the healthcare system. The quality of nursing care was found to affect patient safety, health outcomes and decrease the length of patient hospitalization. This quality of care provided to patients is linked to the nurses' professional competence level. Therefore, this study investigated nurses' level of competence and their determinants. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional correlational design and recruited 440 nurses working at Jordanian teaching, private, and governmental hospitals. Registered nurses who have direct contact with the patients were included and answered the short version of the self-reported Nurse Professional Competence Scale (NPCS-35). Data was collected between January and June 2023.Results: The current study showed that nurses in Jordan reported a high level of Nurse Professional Competence Scale (Mean=83.12 ± 9.45). Moreover, the higher grade point average, the longer duration of experience, attending training programs, and working in accredited hospitals were all determinants of the high Nurse Professional Competence Scale at a P-value of ˂ 0.01. Conclusion: These results shed light on the need to establish a competence-based education for nursing programs in Jordan; and that all Jordanian educational organizations should have the same method of teaching. Also, there is a need for more efficient collaboration between clinical nurses and nurse educators to develop a competence-based nursing curriculum and bridge the theory-practice gap. Lastly, hospitals should offer training programs/courses for their staff to improve their knowledge, skills and competence.