ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the mediating effect of nurses′ self-efficacy in palliative care between the past behavioral experience of end-of-life care and core competence, and provide theoretical reference for improving the core competence of clinical nurses in palliative care.Methods:579 clinical nurses from 2 tertiary general hospitals in Shandong Province were investigated by convenience sampling method using general information questionnaire, nurses′ self-efficacy questionnaire for palliative care and palliative care nurses′ core competency questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS 25.0.Results:The total score of core competence of hospice care of 579 nurses was (71.41 ± 22.74), nurses′ self-efficacy of palliative care was positively correlated with their core competence ( r = 0.648, P<0.01), past behavior experience was positively correlated with self-efficacy ( r = 0.479, P<0.01), positively correlated with core competence ( r = 0.427, P<0.01). Nurses′ self-efficacy of palliative care played a partial mediating role between the pastbehavioral experience and core competence, which accounted for 64.67% of the total effect. Conclusions:The past behavioral experience of end-stage nursing can directly or indirectly affect the core competence of nurses in palliative care through self-efficacy. It can improve the core competence of palliative care by taking active measures to enrich the past behavioral experience of end-of-life care and improve self-efficacy.