Perceptions of perioperative nursing competence: a cross-country comparison

Abstract

BackgroundThroughout many countries, professional bodies rely on yearly self-assessment of competence for ongoing registration; therefore, nursing competence is pivotal to safe clinical practice. Our aim was to describe and compare perioperative nurses’ perceptions of competence in four countries, while examining the effect of specialist education and years of experience in the operating room.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional surveys from four countries including; Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Sweden. The 40-item Perceived Perioperative Competence Scale-Revised (PPCS-R), was used with a total sample of 768 respondents. We used a factorial design to examine the influence of country, years of experience in the operating room and specialist education on nurses’ reported perceived perioperative competence.ResultsRegardless of country origin, nurses with specialist qualifications reported higher perceived perioperative competence when compared to nurses without specialist education. However, cross-country differences were dependent on nurses’ number of years of experience in the operating room. Nurses from Sweden with 6–10 years of experience in the operating room reported lower perceived perioperative competence when compared to Australian nurses. In comparing nurses with > 10 years of experience, Swedish nurses reported significantly lower perceived perioperative competence when compared to nurses from Australia, Canada and Scotland.ConclusionResearchers need to consider educational level and years of experience in the perioperative context when examining constructs such as competence.

Operating theatre nurse specialist competence to ensure patient safety in the operating theatre: A discursive paper

“…Operating theatre nurses ensure that patients receive person-centred perioperative nursing care during surgery in cooperation with the surgeon and the others in the surgical team (Arakelian et al, 2017). The ability to understand the patients' needs in every different situation during the surgical intervention therefore calls for a skilled professional OT nurse (Gillespie, Harbeck, Falk-Brynhildsen, Nilsson, & Jaensson, 2018;Sandelin & Gustafsson, 2015;Sorensen et al, 2014). They can therefore not be replaced by anyone without this competence, for example, by a graduate nurse or an NA.…”

Developing and psychometric testing of the anaesthesia nursing competence scale

“…In competence studies, the number of years of work experience of nurses was used as a characteristic for the known-group technique. 16,18 However, longer work experience among nurses does not guarantee higher competence, and there are associated factors such the level of education. 13,31 Therefore, this study decided to compare the level of competence between anaesthesia nurses who already had RN education and nursing students who…”

“…To date, the assessment instruments used to measure nurse competence in anaesthesia nursing care have been generic nursing instruments [17][18][19]24,32,33 or have measured the anaesthesia nurse's competence by dividing it into technical skills 7,8,14,15,23,35 and nontechnical skills. 29,40 Existing generic nursing competence instruments have been used to assess nurses' competence across fields of nursing.…”

“…For instance, the Perceived Perioperative Competence Scale-Revised (PPCS-R) is a useful instrument to assess and compare anaesthesia nurses' perioperative nursing competence with that of scrub nurses' and circulating nurses' . 17,18,24 However, the PPCS-R does not fully address specialized competence areas required for sedated/anaesthetized patient care where patients are not able to make their own decision and are highly dependent on technology and medication during the anaesthesia care process. 26 Thus, using a generic instrument engenders difficulties grasping such special areas of anaesthesia nursing care.…”

“…Theoretical framework of the anaesthesia nursing competence scale and the model for construct validity testing of seven categories: ethics of anaesthesia care (items 1-5), patient's risk care (items 6-10), patient engagement with technology (items[11][12][13][14][15], collaboration within patient care (items[16][17][18][19][20], anaesthesia patient care with medication (items 21-25), peri-anaesthesia nursing intervention (items[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], and knowledge of anaesthesia patient care (items[35][36][37][38][39]. Each item is rated by using a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0 to 100 (0 = not at all, 100 = excellent).…”