THE EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION ON CLINICAL COMPETENCY OF SENIOR NURSING STUDENTS

Background & Aims: Professional socialization is a critical aspect of the evolution of nursing students. This process begins with the entry of people into the nursing education program and continues with the completion of nursing education and workplace entry. This study aimed to investigate the effect of professional socialization on clinical competency of nursing students in the field. Materials& Methods: This experimental study was performed on 62 nursing students in Mahabad Azad University who were selected through census and randomly divided into control (n = 31) and intervention (n = 31) groups. The intervention group attended 15 sessions of professional socialization program. A two-part questionnaire consisting of: a) demographic questionnaire and b)clinical competency questionnaire was used to evaluate and compare the control and intervention groups. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 25 software. Paired t-test was used to compare pre and post intervention scores, and independent t-test was used to compare between groups and Smirnov Kolmogorov test was used to check the normality of data distribution. Results: The results of this study showed that the professional socialization educational program delivered by the intervention group was effective on nursing students' clinical competency (P=0.0001). Conclusion: Professional socialization curriculum can have a significant impact on establishing and strengthening clinical competency of nursing students. Therefore, it is suggested that nursing education authorities utilize an organized, systematic and systematic training paradigm of professional socialization training based on new educational strategies in undergraduate nursing students' curricula to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing education courses.