ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rehabilitation nursing is practiced in various settings along the healthcare continuum. No framework is noted in the literature that defines the necessary competencies of the rehabilitation nurse. PURPOSE: To develop a Competency Model for Professional Rehabilitation Nursing and its application to clinical and educational practice. METHOD/DESIGN: A seven-member Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN) task force was convened; conducted a literature review, reviewed current and historical ARN documents, including the Strategic Plan, and developed a Competency Model for Professional Rehabilitation Nursing practice. FINDINGS: The Competency Model for Professional Rehabilitation Nursing delineates four domains of rehabilitation nursing practice and essential role competencies. CONCLUSION: The Competency Model for Professional Rehabilitation Nursing addresses this diverse specialty practice in the current healthcare arena. This framework can be used to guide nurses practicing at different levels of proficiency in various settings. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The Competency Model can be used as a structure for staff orientation, evaluation tools, clinical ladder components, role descriptions and rehabilitation nursing courses.
Subject(s)
Clinical Competence/standards , Nurse's Role , Nursing Staff/standards , Practice Patterns, Nurses'/standards , Rehabilitation Nursing/standards , Education, Nursing, Continuing , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Models, NursingABSTRACT
Research skills education is needed for nurses at all levels: novice, intermediate, and advanced. Nurse educators can help novice nurse researchers develop skills such as performing literature searches and critiquing research articles, which are necessary to develop and update clinical practice guidelines and implement evidence-based practice. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative approach to encourage nurses to perform literature searches and critique research articles as a means to eventually engage in evidence-based practice.
Subject(s)
Information Storage and Retrieval/methods , Nursing Research/education , Review Literature as Topic , Social Facilitation , Humans , Organizational InnovationABSTRACT
This manuscript demonstrates how one institution used research background information to recommend the use of two survey studies on nurses' knowledge, attitude, and practice related to research as a needs assessment tool to develop research education. The survey results provided in this manuscript helped the staff development specialist members of the nursing research committee develop an organized approach to education development that targeted nurses who need research education. The committee is planning for the future incorporation of research skills into the new nurses' orientation program.
