Study of the Nursing Competence in Three Public Hospitals in Vietnam

Abstract

Providing high quality health care in Vietnam is still challenging because of the limited availability of qualified health care professionals. The aims of this study are to describe the level of nursing competence in three clinical practices in Vietnam, and to identify factors that have significance for influencing nursing clinical competence. Of the factors perceived to influence nursing competence, this study found that the following were significant: educational level, salary and work environment.

The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive design with a convenience sample of 301 nurses working in medical or surgical departments or intensive care units in three public hospitals. The data were collected by self-assessment report using as an instrument the questionnaire of The European Healthcare Teaching and Accreditation Network. The instrument contained questions regarding eight domains of nursing practice. The internal consistency and validity of the instrument had been established previously.

The analysis of data was performed using the SPSS 17.00 statistic; descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used.

Internal consistency for the total competence score yielded a Cronbach’s α of 0.95 and the Cronbach’s α for each of the eight domains of competence ranged from 0.73 to 0.89. The Pearson correlation coefficients among the eight domains and the total score ranged from 0.44 to 0.77 (p < 0.01).

Most nurse participants demonstrated a moderate level of nursing competence in their practice with a mean score of 2.85 (SD = 0.33). There were significant differences in the level of nursing competence by socio-demographics. The findings of this study indicated that nurses with a higher level of education demonstrated a higher level of nursing competence (t = -1.95, p = 0.05). Furthermore, differences in hospitals might affect the level of competence for the domain of professional and ethical practice (F = 3.68, df = 2, 298, p = 0.026). A higher salary level was related to the level of competence in the domain of professional and ethical practice (F = 4.34, df = 2, 298, p = 0.014).

The evaluation of the level of nursing competence needs to be integrated throughout the nursing career process. The data of this study can serve to promote an expectation of a higher level of professional nursing in order to increase basic level of nursing competence.