Can Nurses' Informatics Competency Predict Their Professional Competency?

Understanding the way nurses' informatics competencies affect their mastery of professional competencies can help provide high quality care and design contents for continuing nursing education. This study aimed to determine the association between nurses' informatics and their clinical competencies.

A total of 150 nurses who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this descriptive study from three general public hospitals in Rafsanjan, Iran, using stratified random sampling method. Self-reporting data collection was performed applying three questionnaires of (1) personal and job characteristics, (2) the Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Scale (SANIC), and (3) the Competency Inventory for Registered Nurses (CIRN). Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Chi-square, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and linear regression statistical tests at the significance level of 0.05, were applied.

Female nurses had higher CIRN scores than male ones (p = 0.027). The results of the Pearson's correlation coefficient showed a moderate significant positive association between SANIC and CIRN scores (r = 0.341, p = 0.001). Furthermore, results of the linear regression analysis showed that about 11% of the CIRN score was associated to the SANIC score (P = 0.001). After adjustment based on gender (p = 0.060) and education (p = 0.064), the correlation was not significant.  

Given the effect of gender and level of education, there was no significant association between Nursing Informatics Competencies and nurses’ competency. The level of application of informatics in nursing should be reviewed contextually.