Development of an easy-to-use questionnaire assessing critical care nursing competence in Japan: A cross-sectional study.

Masatoshi Okumura,Kazunao Mori,Yoshihiro Fujiwara,Tomonori Ishigaki,Andrew Soundy

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225668

Abstract

Critical care nurses need a high level of medical competence, especially with regard to patient safety. There are several tools to measure general and critical care nursing competence, but the usability of these tools is inadequate because they include large numbers of questions. To maintain quality and safety in intensive care units (ICUs), it is necessary to be able to easily measure and evaluate critical care nursing competence. The purpose of this study was to develop an easy-to-use questionnaire assessing critical care nursing competence related to patient safety. A cross-sectional, descriptive, explorative study was designed to collect data from nurses working in six ICUs in tertiary hospitals in Japan. Data were collected from August 2017 to December 2018. The Critical Care Nursing Competence Questionnaire for Patient Safety (C3Q-safety) is a 22-item instrument designed to assess nursing competence related to patient safety in ICUs. Items were developed based on previous work related to critical care nursing competence and were adjusted based on a pilot study. A total of 211 nurses working in ICUs participated in this study. Through descriptive statistics and factor analysis, the number of questions was reduced from 24 to 22. The C3Q-safety had four factors: decision making, collaboration, nursing intervention, and principles of nursing care. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.73 to 0.83. The four factors showed positive correlations with each other (0.47 to 0.72). Nurses licensed as certified nurses in intensive care and those with longer ICU work experience showed significantly higher scores on all four factors. We developed an easy-to-use questionnaire to assess critical care nursing competence related to patient safety. The C3Q-safety was able to detect four areas of competence. The C3Q-safety will make it possible to easily measure critical care nursing competence and can be utilized for efficient education.

Highlights

Ill patients need to receive expert care supported by in-depth knowledge and a high level skill, and care that ensures patient safety
Nurses licensed as certified nurses in intensive care and those with longer intensive care units (ICUs) work experience showed significantly higher scores on all four factors
We developed an easy-to-use questionnaire to assess critical care nursing competence related to patient safety

Summary

Introduction

Ill patients need to receive expert care supported by in-depth knowledge and a high level skill, and care that ensures patient safety. Critical care nursing requires a high level of competence, which is an ongoing challenge. Critical care nursing competence comprises both clinical and professional competence [3, 4]. Professional competence can be divided into four domains: ethical activity, decision making, development work, and collaboration. Critical care nursing competence consists of four domains: knowledge base, skill base, attitude and value base, and experience base [3]. Critical care nurses need a high level of medical competence, especially with regard to patient safety. To maintain quality and safety in intensive care units (ICUs), it is necessary to be able to measure and evaluate critical care nursing competence. The purpose of this study was to develop an easy-to-use questionnaire assessing critical care nursing competence related to patient safety

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion