Status quo of the core competence and its influencing factors of nursing undergraduates

Abstract

Objective To explore the status quo of the core competence and its influencing factors in undergraduate nursing students, so as to provide references for enhancing nursing undergraduates' core competence. Methods From November to December 2016, a total of 600 undergraduate nursing students were selected by purposive sampling method. The demographic questionnaire, Core Ability of Nursing Students Scale, Nursing Students Professional Identity Scale and Professional Commitment of Nursing Students Scale were applied in the investigation. In this study, 600 questionnaires were distributed and 541 were recovered. Pearson correlation analysis was adopted to analyze the correlation between nursing students' core competence and professional identity and professional commitment. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was applied to analyze the factors influencing nursing students' core competence. Results The core ability score of the undergraduate nursing students was (3.674±0.577) . There was a positive correlation between each dimension of nursing students' core competence and each dimension of professional identity and professional commitment (P<0.01) . The result of multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that the influence of professional commitment to the core competence was the largest (P<0.05) . Conclusions The core competence level of undergraduate nursing students needs to be further improved, and schools should take various measures to improve the level of professional identity and professional commitment for the students, thus improving the core competence of nursing students. Key words: Students, nursing; Education, medical, undergraduate; Professional identity; Professional commitment