Nursing Core Competencies of Staff Nurses Providing Care for Burned Patients

Abstract

Background: Competency standards for nurses who specialize in the care of burn-injured patients are lacking. Currently, there are no nationally agreed on standards that define safe and competent burn nursing practice. In 2014, nurse members of the American Burn Associationproposed the Burn Nurse Competency Initiative (BNCI) with the intent of establishing a core set of competency standards for burn nursing. Aim; this study aimed to Assess Competency Levels of staff nurses providing care for burned patients. Subject and method; A descriptive Correlational research design was used in conducting this study ;The study sample is aconvenient sample and this study was conducted at two different settings , the first setting is Ahmed Orabi Hospital for burn and tumor and the other setting is Burn Unit in El-Demerdash hospital at Ain Shams University.The subjects of the study included 61 staff nurses, 33 Staff nurses working at Ahmed Orabi hospital and 28 Staff nurses working at Burn unit in El Demerdash hospital at Ain Shams University. Two types of tools were used to collect data, one Questionnaire sheet namely nurses knowledge core competencies Questionnaire, the other Observational checklist Results; the majority of staff nurses had low competency level of knowledge about burn and core competencies regarding (infection control , hazards materials safety , medication administration) at both hospitals. Conclusion; the study findings showed a statistically significant correlation between Total Core competencies of Nurses' knowledge and skills. Recommendation; Nursing administration should develop effective training program related to Infection control, medication administration and hazards materials safety.