Authors

Isabel Fargues i García1, Mireia Subirana i Casacuberta2

Position

Diplomada en Enfermería. Responsable y profesora de los programas de Enfermería Fundamental y Teorías y Modelos. EUE Hospital de

Contact address

EUI Sant Pau. S. Antoni M. Claret, 167. 08025 Barcelona.

Contact email: Ifargues@santpau.es

Abstract

The most important national and international nursing agencies have produced numerous documents describing nursing competence areas. Some aspects are clearly identified and recognised while others are not even visible. The objective of this study was to ascertain the perception of experienced nurses regarding the recognition of their professional competence and, if applicable, to generate proposals to achieve or improve such competence. The study is based on a phenomenological theoretical perspective. The Grounded Theory was the method used and the focal group was used the technique to generate data. To maximise the opportunity to find the phenomenon, a group of experienced nurses working with people with highly complex health problems was selected.
Based on the analysis of the video recording, three large thematic blocks were established: 1) interventions relating to their field of expertise/competence; 2) perception of their knowledge and 3) proposals for the procurement.
The results refer to the nurses who feel recognised by the patients, family and nursing team for their competence. However, they do not feel recognised by the medical team, the institution and society. They do not believe that their intervention is not visible, they talk about them not being valued and/or recognised, which is clearly related with the visibility of the empiric knowledge described by Carper and the difficulty to perceive objectively the components of the aesthetic, ethic and personal knowledge. Nevertheless, they all conclude that this lack of knowledge does not affect the quality of their work.

Keywords:

Professional competence; nursing knowledge; Focal group; Grounded Theory; qualitative research

Versión en Español

Título:

Percepción de las enfermeras expertas sobre el reconocimiento de sus competencias