Assessment of Validity and Reliability of the Arabic Nursing Core Competencies Scale-70

Abstract

Aim and Objectives: The present study aims to provide an Arabic version scale that is valid and reliable to be used in Arabic countries to assess the level of competencies as it has become a prerequisite for nurses’ high-quality performance.

Background: Nursing is the profession that holds the health of individuals across life journey. Nurses’ responsibilities are varied based on their specialties, but the main role is to support those who are in need for healthcare.

Design: A methodological multi-countries study.

Methods: the study is conducted on Iraqi and Jordanian hospitals from September, 6^th, 2019 to September, 30^th, 2021.

Participants’ Contribution: there is no patients or public contribution, there is only nurses, because the study is focused on their core competencies, not on patients or public persons. After the ethical consideration taken into consideration, nurses who completed the survey were 225; surveys with incomplete information were excluded and the total number left for the study were 217 nurses; male nurses were 132 and female nurses were 85.

Results: The study results show that all the calculated values of the reliability parameters (Cronbach's Alpha=0.932, Correlation Between Forms=0.856, Spearman-Brown Coefficient=0.922, and Guttmann Split-Half Coefficient=0.918) were within the higher reliability range. Additionally, the results indicate that the scale items can collected in five domains according to its direction with a maximum determined variance. The scale domains are including the Human understanding and communication skills; Professional attitudes; Critical thinking and evaluation; General clinical performance; and Specific clinical performance.

Conclusions: The ANCCS is a valid and reliable scale for measuring the nurses’ core competencies in clinical practice, and it is easy to use by students, educators, administrators, and clinical personnel. It is highly recommended for nurses to use the ANCCS as a self-evaluation tool to maintain and improve their practice by identifying their strength and areas of improvement.

Relevance to Clinical Practice

Nurses’ core competencies are a fundamental concept in nursing, it reflects the quality of nursing care. Furthermore, health care systems can integrate the core competencies of ANCCS in their quality system to evaluate or to motivate nurses in specified and unified evidence-based items.   As a conclusion; it has been determined that the ANCCS can be used for specifying nurse’s competency level in Arabic population.