Relationship between Educationally Acquired Pediatric Nursing Competencies and Performance among Intern Students

Abstract

Background: Nursing institute has responsibility to prepare graduates who can provide competent nursing care to meet the needs of the patients especially children in the health care system Aim of the study: The study aimed to identify the relationship between learned and performed competencies of intern students of Imbaba's Technical Institute of Health. Research design: A descriptive design was used to conduct this study. Subjects: A purposive sample composed of 80 intern students. Setting: The study was carried out at Imbaba's Technical Institute of Health affiliated to Ministry of Health in Egypt. Tools of Data Collection: It included assessment sheet adopted from standardized tool performance competency assessment checklist according to National Authority for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Education, Kassem (2009) and was used to measure performance of intern student. Results: One third of intern students competent and had good nursing performance in pediatric procedures , while nearly half of them competent and had average performance in their pediatric procedures . Also there was a statistically significant difference between performance of the intern students and their competencies. Conclusion: The current study concluded that, there was a relationship between educationally learned competencies and performance of intern students of the Technical Health Institute of Imbaba. Recommendations: The study emphasized the importance of a more effective coordination between the technical institutes of health and different health sectors to determine the pediatric nursing competencies that should be acquired by the intern students during their study to meet the required needs. Key words: Nursing performance, Competency, Pediatric nursing, Intern students.