The Component of Charge Nurse Competency at the Surgical Ward in the Public Secondary Level

Abstract

This descriptive research aims to analyze and determine the component of the charge nurse competency at the surgery ward in public secondary level hospitals. The sample consisted of 214 professional nurses, who have been working for at least a year as a charge nurse at the surgery wards of 11 public secondary level hospitals in the 5th Health District. The research instruments were sets of questionnaires consisting of: 1) personal information and 2) a five-level rating scale on competencies of the charge nurses. The content validity was .91. The reliability of the instrument was calculated by the Cronbach‘s Alpha Coefficient which was at .978. The research analyzed data using Exproratory factor analysis and the principle component analysis. The spindle rotation consisted of orthogonal by varimax method. The findings of this research were as follows: the six components of charge nurse competency at the surgical ward were : 1) technology and information with 12 variables factor loading .37-.78  2) moral and ethical aspects with 15 variables factor loading  .43-.79 3) leadership with 14 variables factor loading .41-.72 4) professional expertise with 7 variables factor loading .52-.65 5) communication and relationship skills with 8 variables factor loading .44-.64 and 6) management with 4 variables factor loading .33-.35.This research suggests that relationships or related factors should be found to be managed in depth can be researched that expands the population and samples among nurses, head of nursing faculty, nurses in more fields.