the relationship betweennurses' quality of work life and their clinical competency

the relationship betweennurses&apos; quality of work life and their clinical competency     habibzadeh h [1] *, ghorbanzadek [2] , khalkhali hr [3] , mohamadpor y [4]     received: 3feb, 2012 accepted: 6may, 2012     abstract   background & aims : high quality of work life (qwl) is known as basic prerequisite for empowering human resources in health system. while nurses have a significant position in health organizations’ success their clinical competencies play an important role for their proficiency-which recently has been criticized-. sounderstandingclinical competency determinants and its promotion is considerable for health care and medical educational systems at all times. as research studies’ involving this issue seems rare in our country, we aimed toseek for the relationship betweennurses&apos; quality of work life andtheir clinical competency.   materials & methods : this descriptive –correlation study was conducted with a multi stage random sample of 136 nurses working in hospitals of urmiauniversity of medical sciences. data were collected through self- administered questionnaire including demographic characteristics, qwl based on brooks and clinical competence scale mertoja rita. the information was analyzed by non parametric spearman correlation andchi -square test by using statistical program for the social science (spss 16.0) for windows.   result : our findings showed a weak correlation between qwl and level of nurses’clinical competency (r= 0/245, p= <0/004). but a significant relationship (p=0/041) has been showed between these two indices by cross tabulation with x2= 4/579.   conclusion: the results of this study indicated that desired levels of quality of work life could lead to the clinical competency development. health systems and nursing managers should apply the appropriate strategies to promote nurses&apos; qwl and provide proper facilities for improving the quality of care and clinical competency of nurses.   key words: quality of work life, clinical competence, nurses.     address: nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran   tel: (+98) (0441)2754961   email: [email protected]   [1] assistant professor of urmia university of medical science.urumia iran (corresponding author)  [2] intensive care nursing graduate student, nursing and midwifery faculty, urmiaunivrsity of medical science.urumia iran  [3] assistant professor biostatistics of urmia university of medical science.urumia iran  [4] instructor of nursing.urmia university of medical science.urumia iran