What is it about?
Background The expected competencies of nurses in home-based care remain unclear. A list of professional competencies that are agreed upon by a panel of content expert are needed to offer some form of standardized expectations among nurses and home-based care stakeholders. Objectives To evaluate the content validity of the professional competencies identified for home-based nursing care. Design An e-Delphi method was used. Settings A purposive sampling of local and international experts in home-based nursing care or community nursing. Methods Preliminary competency items were developed inductively from earlier studies and deductively by a steering committee. Sixteen experts performed two rounds of content validation. The Item-Content Validity Index, Scale-Content Validity Index/Average (S-CVI/Ave) and Fleiss’ kappa coefficient were evaluated. Results In Round One, the list was revised to 49 items. In Round Two, the list was revised to 45 items, categorized into eight domains of practice: (1) client assessment and care planning; (2) nursing care in a home-based setting; (3) management of clients with health conditions, (4) interpersonal relationships and communications; (5) collaboration and teamwork; (6) critical thinking and problem-solving skills; (7) professional development and leadership; and (8) innovation and research. The S-CVI/Ave was 0.95. The overall acceptable clarity was 94.1 %. Conclusions This study generated a list of competencies that have reached consensus among a panel of experts. The list offers insights into the expected competencies of home-based care nurses. Further validity and reliability testing is needed to determine the underlying structure of the competencies.
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Why is it important?
• The rapid global expansion of home-based care lacks clear nursing competencies. • Clear competencies are vital as nurses often practice independently in home care. • Professional competencies offer a foundational framework for global healthcare adoption.
Perspectives
• A list of professional competencies for home-based nursing care that is content validated by local and international experts including patients’ representatives. • The competencies offer insights into the scope of practice and expected competencies of home-based care nurses. • The competencies could align expectations of safe and effective care between nurses, service providers, nursing leaders and patients.
Dr. Khairul Dzakirin Bin Rusli
National University of Singapore
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Development and validation of competencies for home-based nursing care: an e-Delphi study, International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, June 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnsa.2025.100330.
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