Nurses’ competencies in providing care to COVID-19 patient: survey of Jordanian nurses

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of nurses’ competencies while providing care to COVID-19 patients. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive, correlational design was used to collect data from nurses who were providing care to COVID-19 patients at four public hospitals. Findings A total of 377 nurses (64.5% females) aged 23–50 consented to participate and completed the survey. The mean score of nurses’ competencies in providing care to COVID-19 patients was 2.5 (SD = 0.81). The results of correlation coefficient tests disclosed a significant positive correlation between reported competence level and sex rpb (377) = 0.18, p < 0.01; working area rpb (377) = 0.2, p < 0.01; disaster experience rpb (377) = 0.16, p < 0.01; disaster education rpb (377) = 0.25, p < 0.01; and disaster training rpb (377) = 0.31, p < 0.01. Research limitations/implications The COVID-19 pandemic response heavily relied on nurses. However, they had a gap in clinical competencies that indicates an urgent need to incorporate disaster management courses in basic nursing education and to update training in hospitals based on nurses’ needs to improve their capabilities in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigated the perceived level of Jordanian nurses’ competencies in providing care to COVID-19.