The Relationship between Clinical Competence and Clinical Self-efficacy among Nursing and Midwifery Students

Abstract

Introduction Self-efficacy in clinical performance had an important role in applying competencies; also competencies and self-efficacy in clinical performance influenced to quality care of nursing and midwifery students. So the present study aimed to define the relationship between clinical competencies and clinical self-efficacy among nursing and midwifery students. Materials and Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 150 of nursing and midwifery students in Isfahan University of Medical Science, selected through two stage sampling in 2014. The participant completed questionnaires about personal/educational characteristics and nursing competencies questionnaire (18 items) and clinical self-efficacy scale (37 items). The data were analyzed by, Pearson statistical test, t-test, variance analysis through SPSS version16. Results The results showed that 50 (n=75) and 37.4 (n=56) of nursing and midwifery students had good clinical competence and clinical Self-Efficacy, respectively. Also the mean competencies and self-efficacy in clinical performance scores were 35.05+/- 1.2 and 76.03+/- 0.4 respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a positive linear correlation between the score of clinical competence and clinical self-efficacy (P<0.05, r=0.73). Conclusion The results reveal that self-efficacy is a significant predictor of a student's clinical performance therefore increasing clinical competence related to high clinical Self-efficacy.