Acquisition of Competencies of Nurses: Improving the Performance of the Healthcare System

Abstract

Perspectives of the core competencies of nurses are varied among postgraduate-year nurses, which makes it challenging to establish training programs and develop evaluation instruments. Particularly critical for nurses is the ongoing acquisition of competencies throughout life. Sometimes this acquisition is funded by the healthcare system, but the key question is how the system leverages this acquisition and ultimately how it translates into patient care. This study seeks to explore nurses’ key competencies acquired through continuing education from the perspective of two groups of postgraduate nurses with different levels of experience and with different objectives to be assessed. An NGT procedure was applied to the group discussion. The participants were recruited according to basic factors such as the number of years of professional experience, their level of education, and their preferred professional status. Thus, seventeen professionals participated in the study, representing two public hospitals in the city. Following the NGT procedure, the competencies identified from the thematic analysis were scored and ranked to achieve a consensus. Eight core issues were derived in the novel group concerning transferring the competencies to patient care quality: holism, care work, organizational barriers, specialization, no transfer, confidence, knowledge, and instrumental tools. Four core issues were derived when asked about the relationship between the resources invested and the organizational and professional development of the nursing staff: professional development, positive learning, negative learning, and recognition. In the more experienced group, seven issues were derived from the first issue raised: continuous learning, quality, confidence, holism, safe care, autonomy, and technical issues. Additionally, six issues arose from the second question: satisfaction, autonomy, creativity, productivity, professional development, and recognition. In conclusion, the perceptions of the two selected groups are negative when it comes to assessing the extent to which the competencies acquired in lifelong learning are transferred to the patient and the system evaluates and recognizes these competencies for improvement.