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Learning Objective 1: discuss the factors influencing clinical competence and innovative strategies to enhance the clinical competence in new graduate nurses.
Learning Objective 2: discuss the needs for further research on educational and clinical settings to improve the competence of nurses before graduation.
The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing clinical competence in new graduate nurses in South Korea.
Methods:
The subjects of this study were 238 nurses at 13 general hospitals in South Korea who have had less than 12 months of nursing experience. The data were collected by structured questionnaire from August 1 to August 31 of 2009 and analyzed by the SPSS WIN 12.0 program using percentages, means, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression.
Results:
The total mean score for clinical competence was 2.83±.24, critical thinking disposition was 2,70±.23, and practice environment was 2.73±.37 on a 4 point scale. There were significant differences of clinical competence according to the GPA (t=-3.581, p=.000), previous experience of clinical practice in the hospital (t=-2.214, p=.028), the number of beds in the hospital (t=-3.215, p=.001), and instruction by preceptor (t=-2.323, p=.021). Also, critical thinking disposition and practice environment were positively correlated to clinical competence(r=.504, p=.000; r=.196, p=.002). There was a positive correlation among GPA(r=.227, p=.000), previous clinical experience in the hospital(r=.143, p=.028), the number of beds in the hospital (r=.181, p=.005), duration of job orientation-theory(r=.270, p=.000), duration of job orientation-practice(r=.250, p=.000), and instruction by preceptor (r=.149, p=.021). In multivariate approach, factors included in this study explained 37% of variance in clinical competence. Significant predictors of clinical competence were previous experience of clinical practice (β=.506) and practice environment (β=.123). Critical thinking disposition was the most important predictor of clinical competence (β=.506).
Conclusion:
Based on these findings, nurse educators and researchers should develop a curriculum to improve the critical thinking disposition in new graduate nurses before graduation. Also, practice environment, instruction by preceptor and duration of job orientation can be considered to enhance the clinical competence in new graduate nurses.