Technical competency required by postgraduate psychiatric nursing students: A qualitative research

BACKGROUND: Technical skills result in the patient's safety. Psychiatric nurses need to learn and apply them to provide effective and secure cares. This study explains the technical competency required for postgraduate psychiatric nursing students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This conventional qualitative content analysis study is part of a larger study on the clinical competency of postgraduate psychiatric nursing students performed in Iran in 2020. A qualitative study was conducted at universities holding master's degree courses in psychiatric nursing. Participants were instructors and postgraduate psychiatric nursing students, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists selected by purposeful sampling method. Sampling continued until data saturation was achieved. Data were collected through a semi-structured individual interview and were analyzed by conventional qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The “technical competency” has two subcategories of “specialized knowledge” (including general nursing knowledge, psychiatric nursing knowledge, and basic knowledge of psychology) and “application of knowledge in practice” (including clinical experience, skills of psychiatric nursing interventions, educational skills, and research and evidence-based practice skills). CONCLUSION: The psychiatric nursing student learns and operates knowledge of psychiatric nursing, psychology, education, and research, besides improving their knowledge of general nursing.