Nursing Competencies for Caring Critically Ill Patients in Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a specially designed and equipped facility staffed by skilled personnel with an objective to provide comprehensive and continuous care to critically ill patients with life threatening or potentially life threatening problems. There are many factors which alter the patient’s prognosis and outcome. One of the most important factors is ‘Nursing Competencies’ so as to meet the emerging needs of the patient. The present study is aimed at developing the Nursing Competencies required for caring for critically ill patients in the ICU at a tertiary level hospital. Nursing Assessment Worksheet was used to identify the patient’s needs. The other sources were literature review, informal observations in the ICU and the expert’s opinion. Content validity of these competencies was established from the experts in the field of Nursing Education, Nursing Research, Nursing Practice and Critical Care Medicine. Three consecutive rounds were conducted for establishing content validity. During these rounds the new competency statements were added, others were modified and some of them were deleted. The final list of Nursing Competencies comprised of Core and Specific competencies. The domains of core competencies were professional practice, patient care, drug administration, safe environment and communication. The domains of specific competencies were patient care, drug administration, safe environment, communication, equipment management, documentation critical thinking and professional development. A critical care nurse must be well versed with the core as well as specific nursing competencies.