Abstract:

Objective To describe the current status of nursing administrators’ expectations of nursing competency for newly graduated nurses，and to construct potential categories of administrators’ expectation level and identify the distribution characteristics of administrators’ demographic variables under different categories. Methods A convenience sample of 306 nursing administrators from five tertiary hospitals in Shanghai was selected in November 2021，the Chinese version of Nurse Competence Scale was used in investigation. Results Results of latent profile analysis revealed that the expectation levels of nursing administrators’ could be classified into three subgroups，namely low expectation（15.7%），moderate expectation（48.4%），and high expectation（35.9%） respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that the clinical nursing teachers directly responsible for the training of newly graduated nurses had higher proportion than that of head nurses and nursing department managers（ χ²=10.658，P=0.021）；nursing administrators with a bachelor degree tended to have high expectations（H=6.998，P=0.030）. Meanwhile，nursing administrators with high expectation levels were more inclined to recognize the newly graduated nurses’ competence（ χ²=10.954，P=0.005） and competence to meet the standards（ χ²=13.142，P=0.001）. Conclusion Nursing administrators’ expected level on the nursing competence of newly graduated nurses is at a high level，and difference lies in expectations of administrators with different degrees，positions，recognition and trust.

Key words: Nurse Administrators, Expected nursing competence, New nurses, Latent profile analysis