Academic training and clinical placement problems to achieve nursing competency

Introduction: High quality of care is one of the requirementsof nursing which depends on the nursing competency. In thisconnection, the aim of this research was to determine theproblems related to the academic training (nursing’ educationalprogram) and clinical practice to achieve competency from theviewpoint of nurses, faculty members, and nursing students.Methods: The study was an analytical cross-sectional one. Thesample consisted of the academic staff, the third and the fourth yearnursing students and nurses in practice. The instrument of the studywas a two-part researcher-made questionnaire with 22 questionsin the theoretical- clinical realm to assess problems related tothe theoretical and clinical teaching in nursing, and 23 questionsto assess the clinical functions. The questionnaire was validatedin terms of both face and content validity. Its reliability, usingCronbach’s Alpha coefficient, was 0.72 in the theoretical-clinicaland 0.73 in the clinical realm. Both descriptive and analyticalstatistics were used to analyze the data, using SPSS software.Results: The results of this study indicated that from theparticipants’ viewpoints, the most important problems in theacademic education for nurses to acquire competency were asfollows: lack of academic research during the clinical period(88.9%), no application of theoretical aspects of the nursing processin practice (85.6%), insufficient knowledgeable and professionaleducators (81.1%), the use of traditional routine-oriented methodson the wards (75.6%); also insufficient time for performance basedon knowledge in relation to the nurse’s workload (86.5%), weaknessand usefulness of scientific function encouragement systems inclinic (85.2%), and learnt theoretical subjects not coming intopractice in clinical fields after graduation (75.6%).Conclusion: Efforts to reduce the gap between the theoreticaland practical (clinical function) knowledge in educational andwork environment are required to improve the training ofqualified nurses.Keywords: Academic training, Clinical, Achieve, Competency