Competency in nursing practice: a concept analysis

OBJECTIVE: Competency denotes the ability to execute a certain task or action with the necessary knowledge. Competency definitions and measurements are challenging for nursing and other professions due to their multidimensional aspects. This study aimed to clarify the concept of competency in nursing practice and propose an accurate definition. DESIGN: Walker and Avant’s approach was used to elucidate the concept of competency in nursing practice. DATA SOURCES: ScienceDirect, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus and CINAHL were searched from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2021. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included studies with the keywords: “concept analysis”, “competence”, “competency” and “nursing”. The search was limited to full-text studies written in English that used theoretical and empirical approaches. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: We extracted the concept’s uses, defining attributes, and the consequences and antecedents of the concept. RESULTS: 60 articles were identified from the search process; after excluding duplicates and works unrelated to the study aim and context following the full-text screening, 10 articles were included in this concept analysis. The common defining attributes of competency were knowledge, self-assessment and dynamic state. Competency in nursing practice had many reported positive consequences that include but are not limited to improved patient, nurse and organisational outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses can benefit from the result of this analysis in practice to implement professional care, in particular clinical contexts and situations to enhance patients’ health.