Core competencies of masters-prepared nurses

To identify a common core of process competencies that all masters-prepared nurses are expected to attain, regardless of area of clinical concentration or functional-role goal, a 68-item Process Competency Scale was devised from a conceptual model of the multiple roles of masters-prepared nurses: practitioner, educator, manager, and change agent. Responses from 118 questeionnaires from four groups of respondents revealed that 25 competency items met the criteria established for a core competency. There was uniform agreement that nursing educators should be high-level practitioners and that practitioners of nursing should attain teacher competencies.