ABSTRACT
Clinical competency is the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions and values in the clinical environments. Competency is a complex concept that encompasses such attributes as knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Acquirement of competency is final outcome and product of an educational system. The purpose of this study is to determine the viewpoint of nursing students about clinical competency and its level of achievement. A Descriptive-analytic design was applied for 91 undergraduate nursing students from Tehran school of nursing and midwifery. The data was collected by a questionnaire consisted of two parts: 1] demographic characteristic, 2] clinical competencies included: systematic assessment and data gathering, care planning, ethical points, professional improvement, client and family comfort, effective care management, and collaboration with health team. [p<0.05]. Among 91 students, 70 cases participated in this study .The results showed that most of the students were agree with the competencies: systematic assessment and data gathering 81.4%, care planning 78.65%, ethical points 81.4%, professional improvement 78.6%, client and family comfort 84.3%, effective care management 77.5%, and collaboration with health care team 80%. Also the most participants had amoderate view about their achievement to systematic assessment and data gathering 58.6%, care planning 52.9%, ethical points 68.6%, professional improvement 64.3%, client and family comfort 60%, effective care management 64.3%, and collaboration with health team 60%. There were not any significant correlations between demographic characteristic of participants and their view about clinical competency and its level of achievement. The results indicated that all participants had not any agreement about production of clinical competency by current nursing education program. On the other hand the achievement level of competency by nursing students was moderate and weak. This study can be useful as a guideline to determine practical solutions of changing students' view and their achievement to the clinical competency