Construction Of Core Competence Scale And Training Courses For The Infectious Disease Specialist Nurses

Under the background of COVID-19 pandemic,the broad spread of infectious diseases pose great threats to human society,hence,the importance of infectious disease nursing is increasingly prominent.Infectious disease specialist nurses are the backbone of infectious disease nursing team.Their core competence matters the quality of infectious disease nursing and the development of infectious disease nursing.Scientific measurement of the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses and targeted training to specialist nurses are of great significance for the development of infectious disease specialist nurses and the improvement of infectious disease nursing quality.At present,there is no evaluation scale for the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses at home and abroad,and there are no systematic,comprehensive and scientific training courses for the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to establish an evaluation scale of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence and conduct empirical researches so as to know about the current situation of the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses in China.On this basis,targeted training courses of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence are formulated to provide reference for later development of standardized and homogeneous training,thus promoting the development of infectious disease nursing.Objectives1.Clarify the contents of core competence required by infectious disease specialist nurses,and construct the conceptual model of core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses.2.Develop the core competence scale of infectious disease specialist nurses to provide evaluation tools for scientifically measuring the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses,investigate the current situation and influence factors of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence in China,and know about the shortcomings and deficiencies so as to provide reference for the construction of the training course of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence in the future.3.Construction of the training course of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence to provide reference for the training of homogeneous specialized nurses of infectious diseases.Methods1.Construct a conceptual model of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence.A research group was established to construct the conceptual model of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence through literature review,theoretical study,qualitative interview and expert consultation.2.Develop and evaluate the core competence scale for infectious disease specialist nurses.On the basis of the conceptual model,the language expression of the items was transformed through expert group meeting.10 infectious disease specialist nurses were invited to read the items to ensure that the contents were easy to understand,and then 10head nurses were invited to conduct a pilot survey on 50 infectious disease specialist nurses to construct the first draft of the scale.In the first round of survey,40 head nurses from 7 infectious disease specialized hospitals and the infectious departments of Grade III Level A hospitals in Shaanxi Province,Zhejiang Province,Shanxi Province and Hubei Province were selected to evaluate the core competence of 540 infectious disease specialized nurses in their ward through the first draft of the infectious disease specialized nurses’core competence scale.The item analysis method in the classical measurement theory was used to test the items,and then the exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the structure of the initial version of the scale so as to develop a trial scale.In the second round of survey,the convenient sampling method was used to select 42head nurses from 9 infectious disease specialized hospitals and the infectious departments of of Grade III Level A hospitals in Shaanxi Province,Yunnan Province,Beijing and Chongqing to evaluate the core competence of 517 infectious disease specialized nurses in their ward through the trial scale of infectious disease specialized nurses’core competence.Then the item analysis in classical measurement theory was used again to test the items.Half of the contents of the scale were randomly selected for exploratory factor analysis again,while the remaining scales were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis for reliability and validity evaluation to form a formal scale.T-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the discrimination of the scale.In the third round of survey,128 head nurses from 18 infectious disease specialized hospitals and the infectious departments of of Grade III Level A hospitals in China were selected.The core competence of 1409 infectious disease specialized nurses in the ward was evaluated by the infectious disease specialized nurses’core competence scale,and multiple stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the core competence of infectious disease specialized nurses and the influencing factors of each dimension.3.Construction of the course training system of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence.Based on the conceptual model of the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses constructed in the early stage,and the current situation and influencing factors of the core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses in China,combined with expert group discussion and Delphi expert consultation,the course training system of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence is developed.Results1.Construct a conceptual model of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence.The expert familiarity coefficient in this part of expert consultation is 0.913,the expert judgment coefficient is 0.933,and the expert authority coefficient is 0.923.The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance(Kendall’s W)of the first,second and third level indicators in the first round of expert consultation were 0.156,0.262 and 0.318respectively,and the Kendall’s W of the first,second and third level indicators in the second round of expert consultation were were 0.177,0.236 and 0.324 respectively.The Kendall’s W test had statistical significance(P<0.01),indicating that the experts’opinion coordination degree was preferable.Finally,the conceptual model of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence was established,including 6 primary indicators,16secondary indicators and 47 tertiary indicators.2.Develop and evaluate the core competence scale for infectious disease specialist nurses.In the first round of survey,516 valid questionnaires were collected.All items were retained after being tested.11 items were deleted after exploratory factor analysis.The value of Bartlett’s test and KMO test was 25348.591 and 0.861(P<0.01)respectively.Five common factors were extracted,and the cumulative variance contribution rate was72.229%.Thus,the trial scale which included 36 items was established.In the second round of survey,497 valid questionnaires were collected.2 items were deleted after being tested.247 questionnaires were randomly selected for exploratory factor analysis.The value of Bartlett’s test and KMO test was 15650.143 and 0.962(P<0.01)respectively.And the cumulative variance contribution rate was 75.569%.Finally,a formal scale which was divided into 5 dimensions and composed of 34 items was constructed after taking into consideration all contents of items and categorizing the items,namely professional professional development abilities,infection prevention and control abilities,nursing abilities for infectious diseases,professionalism and humanistic accomplishment and responsiveness to infectious diseases.The reliability of the remaining 250 questionnaires was analyzed.The results showed that the Cronbach’sαof the scale was 0.806,the split-half reliability was 0.966,and the test-retest reliability was 0.831,indicating that the scale had good reliability.The results of validity analysis showed that the content validity of the scale was 0.869.After fitting the five-factor model through confirmatory factor analysis,χ~2/df=2.858,root mean square of approximate error was 0.062,root mean square of standardized residual error was 0.051,Tucker Lewis index was 0.933,and comparative fitting index was 0.940,indicating that the model fit well,and only one common factor could be extracted after analysis of each dimension’s major component.It showed that the scale had good validity.The results of discrimination analysis showed that there were significant differences in the scores of core competence and its five dimensions among infectious disease nurses of different ages,working years,professional titles,educational background,marital status and wages(P<0.05),indicating that the discrimination of the scale was good.In the third round of nationwide survey,1310 valid questionnaires were collected.The total score of all items of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence was(3.87±0.64),of which the score of infection prevention and control abilities was the highest(4.22±0.68)while the score of professional development ability was the lowest(3.40±0.84).The influencing factors of core competence of infectious disease specialist nurses were age(under 30 years old as reference,31～40 years oldβ=4.170,P<0.01);years of working in infectious disease nursing(less than 10 years as a reference,11～20yearsβ=5.117,P<0.01),educational background(β=12.756,P<0.01),title(primary level title as reference,intermedium level titleβ=12.750,P<0.01,advanced level titleβ=17.488,P<0.01),salary(below 3000 yuan for reference,3000～6000 yuanβ=5.208,P<0.01,>6000 yuanβ=10.145,P<0.01),the location of the working hospital(the East as the reference,Westβ=-17.537,P<0.01,Northβ=-16.909,P<0.01,Centerβ=-15.973,P<0.01)and experiences in performing major infectious disease tasks(β=5.613,P<0.01).3.Construction of the course training system of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence.The expert familiarity coefficient in this part of expert consultation was 0.962,the expert judgement coefficient was 0.952 and the expert authority coefficient was 0.957.The result of the first round of expert consultation showed that the Kendall’s W of the competence module,course categories and class contents was 0.280,0.292 and 0.303respectively,while the result of the second round of expert consultation showed that the Kendall’s W of the competence module,course categories and class contents was 0.301,0.350 and 0.253.The Kendall harmony coefficient test was statistically significant(P<0.05),indicating that the expert opinions of the two rounds of expert consultation were well coordinated.Finally,the course training system of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence with 66 classes was constructed,which focused on 5 competence modules(professional development abilities,responsiveness to infectious diseases,nursing abilities for infectious diseases,professionalism and humanistic accomplishment and infection prevention and control abilities)and was composed of 12 course categories(scientific researches on nursing,nursing supervision,nursing education,prediction and emergency drills,response to infectious disease epidemic,nursing capabilities,commonly used diagnosis and treatment technology in infectious disease department,critical thinking capabilities,professionalism,humanistic care,disinfection and quarantine,and occupational protection).ConclusionsThe content of the conceptual model of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence is comprehensive.The compilation method of the core competence scale of the infectious disease specialist nurses was scientific and rigorous,and the reliability and validity test results were good,which could provide reference for the evaluation and development of infectious disease specialist nurses.Taking it as the evaluation tool,it was found that the core competence of the infectious disease specialist nurses in our country still needed to be further improved after investigation and research on the current situation of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence.Based on the conceptual module of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence and with consideration of the current situation of the infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence,the course training system of infectious disease specialist nurses’core competence was clearly targeted,systematic and reasonable,hence providing reference for the homogenization training of infectious disease specialist nurses and worthy of being popularized.