A FACTOR ANALYSIS OF COMPETENCY OF NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE NURSES

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to explore the competency of neonatal intensive care nurses and the variables which described those major factors. The participants were 344 professional nurses who had at least 5 years experience in neonatal intensive care units. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher in two phases: 1) an integrative literature review of neonatal intensive care nurse competency and 2) in-depth interviews. The reliability of the questions was .989 based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient method. The data was analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, and image factoring extraction and Orthogonal rotation with Varimax method.

The research findings were as follows:

There were 7 significant factors that determine the competency of neonatal intensive care nurses that were identified by 100 items accounting for 58.311 % of variances: 1) Neonatal intensive care nursing practice in emergency situations was identified by 35 items accounting for 16.558%  2) Family preparation for continuing neonatal care was identified by 29 items accounting for 14.628% 3) Using evidence based nursing in neonatal intensive care was identified by 10 items accounting for 9.004%          4) Environmental management and infection control was identified by 10 items accounting for 6.320%   5) Promoting growth and development of neonate was identified by 8 items accounting for 4.834%          6) Thermoregulation of neonatal crisis was identified by 5 items accounting for 4.399% and 7) Neonatal intensive care nurse characteristic was identified by 3 items accounting for 2.528%.