Nurse Competency and Caring Efficacy Among Primary Health Care Nurses of a Medical Services Department in Qatar

Abstract

Caring is the fundamental core component in the nursing profession and nurse-patient interaction. Competency is the integration of skills, values, knowledge, and attitudes to specific, contextual practice situations. In the Middle East, particularly in Qatar, the health care sector depends greatly on expatriates. The link between nurse competency and caring efficacy has not been directly investigated thoroughly in a different clinical setting. Professional nursing practice is the vital role of nurses towards patient-centered care, teamwork, and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. Professional caring behaviors include developing good relationships with patients and other staff; working in a self-directed manner; making clinical decisions and the management of practice. This descriptive correlational research design aims to examine the relationship between nurse competency and caring efficacy among primary health care nurses. A total of 102 nurses of the medical services department from different health care facilities of the Ministry of Interior, Doha, Qatar were included in the final sample using purposive sampling. The average age of nurses was 37 years old, most were Filipino nurses, married and had a baccalaureate degree. The average of the length of nursing experience was 3 years and the mean average of the length of the nursing service was 2 years. Data were collected using Nurse Quality and Safety Inventory scale and Caring Efficacy Scale. The study showed that there was a significant relationship between nurse competency and caring efficacy. Specifically, nurse competency had a significant, positive, and direct but weak relationship to caring efficacy. Furthermore, this suggests that nurse competency increases with increasing caring efficacy. Nurse competency is a vital element in the provision of nursing care. It is a synthesis of skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and abilities in providing safe, effective, and quality care to individuals, families, and communities. Thus, having professional nurse competency leads to professional caring behavior that directly affects safe and quality health care delivery. It also increases patient satisfaction, helps promote nursing as a profession, and improves nursing education and clinical nursing practice.