Evaluation of self-perceived competence among Family and Community Nurses who attained the Master's Degree at the University of Eastern Piedmont (2013-2019):an exploratory survey

Abstract

The family and community nurse (fcn) is a recent profession identified by the World Health Organization with the role of coordinating district health and social care. University training courses have been launched to prepare future FCNs. To evaluate self-perceived competences to be implemented at individual, family and community care among levels, of FCNs who attained the Master Degree at the University of Eastern Piedmont between 2013 and 2019. All the 73 FCNs were sent an online questionnaire, with questions exploring the self-perceived competence levels in each item of FCNs' domain. Possible differences due to educational level and place of employment were analysed using Fisher's exact test; the Mantel-Haenszel test was used to control for confounding. A total of 49 FCNs, aged 25-57 years, completed in the questionnaire. Overall, FCNs reported high skills in individual care, but much lower skills at the community level, especially in setting short-term and long-term goals (high-level responses: 79.6-83.7% for individual vs 34.7-42.9% in the community) and in acting as an agents of change (91.8% vs 38.8%, respectively). Further significant differences emerged by education and place of work. FCN education programmes are crucial for complexity training: while courses seem to provide a sound theoretical basis, perceived competence is lower in the field, especially at community level. Further studies could provide more suggestions for tailoring future courses for FCNs.