Professional Competence in Nursing: A Hybrid Concept Analysis

Objectives: Nurses, as the largest group providing health care services, play a critical role in the continuity of care and respond to services commensurate with their competence. Professional competence in nursing is a complex and ambiguous concept and needs the redefinition of competenceanddevelopment of its definitionandconcept. In this study,weaimedto conceptually analyze professional competence in nursing. Methods: In this study, a hybrid concept analysis was used. In the literature review phase, the concept of ‘competence’ was investigated through valid databases limited to 2000 - 2018 and the participants’ experiences also appeared in the fieldwork phase. In the fieldwork phase, the participants revealed some aspects of professional competence in nursing, which were not well-addressed in the literature. Finally, the comprehensive definition of professional competence in nursing was presented after integrating the findings obtained in these two phases. Results: According to the findings, professional competence in nursing is a combined, complex, multidimensional, and contextdependent concept, and consists of different domains. Based on the analysis results of the fieldwork phase, this concept was classifiedinto 16domainsandthe participants largely contributed to the provision of a comprehensive definition basedonthe definitions of professional competence presented in the literature. Conclusions: Based on the domains of professional competence in nursing obtained from this study, an appropriate instrument can be developed to assess professional competence in nursing for students and nurses.