Clinical competence means a person's ability to use techniques on time, to communicate effectively with others, and to benefit from the knowledge and clinical reasoning ability when responding to different clinical situations in such a way that a person can use these skills at all times. The aim of the study is the relationship between clinical competence and ethical reasoning and the factors affecting it in nurses working in therapeutic educational centers of Ilam. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 110 nurses working in three therapeutic educational centers in Ilam city were randomly selected. Demographic information forms, standard nursing clinical competence questionnaire (NCCQ), and nursing dilemma test (NDT) were used to collect data. The results also showed a positive and significant relationship between age, level of education, years of work experience, employment status, and occupational role with clinical competence and ethical reasoning (P<0.05). On the other hand, there was an inverse and significant relationship between the workplace and clinical competence and ethical reasoning (P<0.05). Data analysis was carried out using Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and analytical tests (Pearson correlation tests and analysis of variance) in SPSS. P-value< 0.05 was considered as the significance level. Using the results of the present study, nursing education planners and managers can periodically organize workshops on nursing ethics and nursing problems in hospitals and universities. Moreover, clinical competence and ethical reasoning should be taken into account when training nursing personnel in university classrooms and in-service courses.
In this descriptive-analytical study, 110 nurses working in educational hospitals of the Ilam University of Medical Sciences were included. Participants were selected using a random sampling method. The data collection tools were the demographic information form, the moral intelligence questionnaire of Lenik and Kiel (2005), and the standard clinical competency assessment questionnaire (CIRN). Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 21. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were used to analyze the data. The mean ± SD score of nurses' moral intelligence and clinical competency was estimated at 157.59 ± 26.60 and 136.65 ± 46.08, respectively. Fifty-one percent of participants had low clinical competency, and 46% had high clinical competency. There was a significant association between moral intelligence and clinical competency (p<0.001, r=0.517). The moral intelligence and clinical competency of nurses were significantly associated with age, education status, work experience, employment status, and rank/position (P<0.05). A negative association was found between working unit/ ward and clinical competency (P<0.05).
Trust in health care professionals is considered as a basis for patients’ care. This study aimed to compare the level of patients' trust in physicians and nurses in both general and COVID-19 wards in a reference hospital in Tehran during the pandemic. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study population comprised patients from Baqiyatallah Hospital in 2022. The data collection tool was the scale of patients’ trust in nurses and the Wake-Forest physician trust scale. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-26 software. The level of patients’ trust in physicians in COVID-19 wards was significantly lower than in Non-COVID-19 wards (P<0.001), but there was no difference between the two groups in the trust of nurses. The lowest level of trust was in the receiving of required information from nurses, which had a lower score compared to other questions in the questionnaire, and the average amount of receiving required information for patients in general wards was significantly lower than that of patients in COVID-19 (P=0.006). Trust in nurses and physicians in both COVID-19 and general wards was optimum. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical staff worked tirelessly and despite the difficulties and complications of the pandemic, patients have high trust in physicians and nurses.