To study the core competence and relative factors of the public health nurses (PHN) at health station in Chiayi County of Taiwan, we collected data by the questionnaire survey modified from ‘the core
competencies for public health professional standards’ of the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organization. We got nurses’ basic information and self-reported responses in eight PHN domains which included analysis and assessment, policy development and program planning, communication, cultural competency, community administration, basic public health sciences, financial planning and management, leadership and system thinking. One hundred and twenty four copies of questionnaires were sent and all (100%) were collected back. Among them, 122 copies (98.4%) of questionnaires are valid and the
Cronbach’s α is 0.94.
The results reveal that average age of PHN is 38.65 years old (SD =8.85) and there are 55.8% PHN with the college background, and 58.19% PHN with their highest diploma of nursing more than 10 years, and the average public health experience is 11.10 years (SD =8.48). The average score of holistic core competence is 3.20 (SD =0.54). PHN get highest scores in communication of the self-assessment core competence, which follows by the community administration. They get lower scores in policy
development/program planning, and leadership/systems thinking.
By logistic regression analysis, the result shows positive correlation between core competences of PHN and their professional hierarchy, and negative correlation between core competences and population of local zones. It reveals that PHN with 10-20 years public health experience get higher scores of self-assessed core competence. PHN with Registered Professional Nurse licenses and older than 41 y/o get higher scores of self-assessed core competence. It also reveals that PHN management more than 5000 population of local zones and for on the job training over 5 times in half a year get higher scores of self-assessed core competence.
Based on the research results, we advise the authority to reinforce the PHN on-the-job training programs of administration capacity, to set up the department for training PHN in medical schools, and to advocate the promotion of PHN refered to their public health professional abilities and competence.
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