Assessment of the relationship between nurses' professional competence and unmet nursing care needs

This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between nurses' unmet nursing care services for their patients and their professional competence. It is known that there is missed nursing care for patients by nurses. The relationship between nurses' professional competence and the underlying reasons for this have been investigated. The type of the study was designed as exploratory descriptive. The universe of the study consisted of 530 nurses working in the inpatient units of Derince Training and Research Hospital. The data of the study were collected using the Nursing Professional Competence Scale and the Unmet Nursing Care Needs Scale via Google Forms after obtaining ethical committee approvals between April 2023 and September 2023. The research data were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis in and a statistical significance level of p<0.05 was accepted. The Alpha values of the scales were found to be 0.936 for the Nursing Professional Competence Scale, 0.867 for the first part of the Unmet Nursing Care Needs Scale, and 0.927 for the second part. vi The study found a positive but weak relationship between nurses' professional competencies and the unmet nursing care needs of their patients. A strong positive relationship (p<0.01) was found between the Unmet Nursing Care Needs and the sub-dimensions of Critical Thinking and Teamwork, and Research and Development of the Nursing Professional Competence Scale. A positive weak relationship (p<0.05) was found between the Unmet Nursing Care Needs and the sub-dimensions of Health/Patient Education of the Unmet Nursing Care Needs Scale, and Communication Teamwork with the sub-dimension of Health/Patient Education of the Nursing Professional Competence Scale. In conclusion, it was observed that there is a weak relationship between the professional competencies of nurses working at Derince Training and Research Hospital and the unmet nursing care needs as their professional competencies increase. It has been suggested that the increase in nurses' professional competencies is not a strong factor in reducing unmet nursing care, and that studies should be repeated in different groups to investigate the unmet nursing care needs and reasons in relation to nurses' professional competencies. Keywords: Nursing, Competence, Professional Competence, Unmet Care