Factors Influencing Nursing Core Competency in Nursing Students

Purpose : This study aimed to analyze the effects of communication ability, caring character, and cultural competence on the nursing student’s core competency. Methods : The study participants were 161 fourth year students at a nursing university in I City. The study was conducted from the Octover 10th to the 30th of October, 2021. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression using SPSS win. 26.0 program. Results : The mean scores for communication ability, caring character, cultural competence, and nursing core competency were 3.82, 4.33, 3.95 and 4.32, respectively. There were positive correlations among communication ability, caring character, cultural competence and nursing core competency. The factors affecting nursing core competency were caring character(β＝.62, p＜.001), cultural competence(β＝.17, p＝.003), and communication ability(β＝.14, p＝.009) with 56.7% of the variance explained by these variables. Conclusions : Students must improve their nursing core competency through education programs while at university. Furthermore, it is necessary to cultivate nursing student’s communication ability, caring character and cultural competence through curriculum development at nursing schools.