Nurses Awareness Regarding their Competence in Managing Patient Situations

Abstract

Abstract: Nurses are basic group in health care settings, and their competences have a major role in the quality of health services. Aim: To examine the nurses awareness regarding their competence in managing patients' situations and exploring the competence level among them. Design: Descriptive explorative design was used. Subjects: Convenient sample comprised of 150 nurses who had at least two years of experience who work in medical, surgical, ICUs and gynecological units at Quena University Hospital. Tools: Nurse Competence Scale was used for data collection. Results: Main result for this study indicated that about 68.7 % of studied nurseshad a good level of competence of managing patient situations, while; only 14.7 % had excellent level. The highest mean score of managing patient situations domains was related to; reporting the results to the physician and other healthcare members while, the lowest was related to; updating nursing care plan. Conclusion: Education level, years of experience in units, obtaining any certification or sharing in advanced life support program like CPR and achieve training in different specialty were factors linked to nurses clinical competence and influenced it. Recommendations: Nursing Managers must plan educational programs to develop nurses' competence from good level to excellent, and provide opportunity for nurses to achieve training in different specialties as incentive for professional growth and nursing administrators should organize nurses for success by establishing systems for warranting chances for knowledge and skills acquirement required for safety nursing practice and the high health level services.