Nursing Core Competencies of Staff Nurses Providing Care for Burned Patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Nursing Community Department, Faculty of Nursing. Ain-Shams University.

2 Nursing Administration Department, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University.

Abstract

Background: Competency standards for nurses who specialize in the care of burn-injured
patients are lacking. Currently, there are no nationally agreed on standards that define safe and
competent burn nursing practice. In 2014, nurse members of the American Burn
Associationproposed the Burn Nurse Competency Initiative (BNCI) with the intent of
establishing a core set of competency standards for burn nursing. Aim; this study aimed to Assess
Competency Levels of staff nurses providing care for burned patients. Subject and method;
A descriptive Correlational research design was used in conducting this study ;The study sample
is aconvenient sample and this study was conducted at two different settings , the first setting is
Ahmed Orabi Hospital for burn and tumor and the other setting is Burn Unit in El-Demerdash
hospital at Ain Shams University.The subjects of the study included 61 staff nurses, 33 Staff
nurses working at Ahmed Orabi hospital and 28 Staff nurses working at Burn unit in El
Demerdash hospital at Ain Shams University. Two types of tools were used to collect data, one
Questionnaire sheet namely nurses knowledge core competencies Questionnaire, the other
Observational checklist Results; the majority of staff nurses had low competency level of
knowledge about burn and core competencies regarding (infection control , hazards materials
safety , medication administration) at both hospitals. Conclusion; the study findings showed a
statistically significant correlation between Total Core competencies of Nurses' knowledge and skills.
Recommendation; Nursing administration should develop effective training program related to
Infection control, medication administration and hazards materials safety.

Keywords