ABSTRACT
Objective [s]: With the ever-growing increase of knowledge in today's global society, teachers now feel it is necessary to train students to become reflective thinkers. This issue is particularly important for nursing students who are responsible for taking care of patients
Method: Forty-two nursing students voluntarily participated in this study. After explaining the aims of the study to the participants, they took part in the clinical skills test. They were divided into two equal case and control groups. The control group took part in routine clinical programs and the cases participated in routine clinical programs plus an interventional program. They were asked to reflect on their clinical experiences for the last 12 weeks of their clinical course and take part in the clinical skills test again. Baseline and post-test data were compared among two groups
Results: The results confirmed the role of reflection on clinical competency, and the two groups were different with respect to learning clinical skills
Conclusion: The findings suggest that clinical skills test should be implemented in the nursing curriculum in Iran as one of the necessary criteria for competency
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Evaluating nurses' clinical competencies is of special importance in managing care process and determining their educational needs. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical competencies and clinical skills application by nurses in two hospitals affiliated to Boushehr and Shiraz Medical Universities
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the clinical competencies of all 266 nurses employed in two main hospitals of Boushehr and Shiraz medical universities and volunteered for participation in the study were compared. A questionnaire containing 73 nursing skills in seven domains of clinical competencies was used to investigate the level of nurses' clinical competencies through Visual Analogue Scale [0 to 100] and their clinical skills application via a 4 degree Lickert Scale. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Results: Having a mean score of 87.03 +/- 10.03, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences' nurses enjoyed higher level of clinical competencies compared to the mean score of 71.07 +/- 13.66 achieved by those in the hospital affiliated to Boushehr University of Medical Sciences. Moreover, 70 percent of clinical skills are recurrently exploited by nurses employed in Boushehr while this rate is more than 83 percent in the hospital affiliated to Shiraz Medical University
Conclusion: The level of clinical competencies and the extent to which nursing skills are employed by nurses is dissimilar in these two hospitals. Educational needs assessment for nurses and modification of health care quality in different hospitals is recommended to be investigated