The clinical competencies required by nurses in relation to the Covid19 crisis and the factors affecting these competencies: a systematic review

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that an important priority for advancing nursing education is to ensure that nurses are competent to provide effective care during a pandemic or other disasters. This study aimed to determine the clinical competencies required by nurses during the COVID-19 crisis and determine the factors affecting these competencies.

A systematic review was used to carry out this project. First, the keywords of clinical competence, COVID-19, and nurse were searched in the title and abstract of the articles available in PubMed, Scopus, and web of Science databases, using AND and OR operators.

10 related studies were included in the present study. Based on the findings of this systematic review, the clinical competencies needed by nurses in the care of patients with COVID-19 are placed in 4 dimensions: knowledge and experience about COVID-19 disease, prevention ability, preparation ability, medical care and rescue ability. Factors affecting these competencies include: education level, work experience, work experience in infectious or isolation departments, age, sex, job rank, and experience in practicing emergency skills.

The results of this study showed that nurses have poor to average performance in terms of knowledge, experience and preparation against the Covid19 crisis, so training programs and skills development should be designed in such a way that nurses can be empowered to provide the best care and prevention