The Competencies for Nurse Entrepreneurs of “Warm” or Aob Aoon Community Nursing Clinics under the National Health Security Office: Delphi Technique

Abstract

This research aimed to study the competencies of nurse entrepreneurs of Aob Aoon or “warm” community nursing clinics (WCNC), which would roughly translate to “friendly local nursing clinics” in English, under the National Health Security Office (NHSO) via the Delphi technique. The sample group included 19 experts who were executives in charge of setting policies for opening WCNC, WCNC entrepreneurs under the NHSO, warm community clinic entrepreneurs under the NHSO, and instructors from educational institutions specializing in setting competency requirements, and community nurse practitioners.  The research instrument was a structured interview guide which was checked for quality using the Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC), which received a score of 0.62. The research was conducted in three rounds. The first round dealt with expert interviews regarding the competencies required of a WCNC under the NHSO. The second round focused on the data obtained from the interviews, which were analyzed via content analysis. After completing the qualitative analysis of the interview data, the outcomes were employed to create a questionnaire, which the researcher asked experts to comment on the level of importance of each question in the questionnaire. Next, the researcher used the information obtained from the experts to calculate the Median (Md) and the Interquartile Range (IR) of the questionnaire. In the third round, the researcher had the same 19 experts consider their answers in comparison to the entire group of experts, including the results of the calculated the Md and the IR of the items to confirm their answers, along with generating a summary of the research’s results.

The findings revealed that the competencies consisted of the following three components: 1) knowledge which was comprised of three elements: knowledge of nursing and primary medical care, understanding of business management, and laws and professional ethics; 2) skill, which was comprised of four elements: nursing practice skills, business management skills, information technology management skills, and communication and relationship-building skills; and 3) characteristics, which was composed of five elements: being persistent, being eager to learn, being service-minded, having moral and work ethics, and having good professional manners. In addition, the vital supporting features included having a working system that complies with the NHSO regulations, crucial equipment in the clinics, and good financial system management. Nurses can use these results as a guideline for self-development to prepare themselves to open a high-quality clinic that is capable of growth.