Enhancing Nurse Interns` Competencies at Emergency Units and Its Effect on Their Satisfaction

Abstract

Successful internship program is fundamental to providing education and training to help the nurse interns make transition from novice to advanced beginner who can demonstrate satisfactory performance and deal with actual and emergency situations before they assume the professional nurses’ roles which will increase their satisfaction. Also, emergency care patients benefit from the attention of nurse interns with a high competence level. Aim of the study: Enhancing nurse interns` competencies at emergency units and its effect on their satisfaction. Design: A quasi experimental design was used in this study. Setting: This study was conducted at Emergency Units at Benha University Hospital. Subjects: A convenient sample of 75 nurse interns recruited from the presented units. Tools for data collection: The study tools divided into four tools. Competencies Knowledge Questionnaire, Performance Observational Checklist, Nurse Interns` Attitude Questionnaire and Nurse Interns Satisfaction Questionnaire. The results showed that, there was very highly statistically significant improvement among nurse interns' knowledge, skills and attitude regarding competencies after implementation of the program. There was highly statistical significant improvement in nurse interns` satisfaction level after implementation of the program. As 16.00% of them were satisfied before program implementation which improved to 66.70% immediate post educational program. The study concluded that, the implementation of competencies program was significantly succeeded in enhancing total knowledge, skills and attitude of nurse interns that significantly improves their satisfaction level. The study recommended that, Conducting continuous in-service training and education programs which contribute much to the development of competencies of nurses and nurse interns at the hospital.