Stroke Care Core Competencies Among Nurses at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Southwestern Uganda

Nurses play a key role in stroke patient care in hospitals, yet little is known about their stroke-specific competencies in low-resource settings like Uganda. Assessment of stroke care competency among new and experienced nurses is important for identifying areas of improvement and development of professional programs to enhance the quality of care for patients. This study assessed self-reported stroke care competencies among nurses at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) to identify priority training needs.

We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study at MRRH, from September to November 2025, using the Stroke Core Competency Framework (SCCF), a self-assessment tool with 24 competencies based on Benner's Novice-to-Expert scale. All nurses caring for stroke patients (N=25) completed a paper-based questionnaire. Data was analyzed in Stata, release 17 (StataCorp LLC, College Station, USA).

A total of 25 nurses, with a mean age of 31.8 (SD ±7.2) years, were enrolled; 52% (13/25) were female participants. The majority of the participants had attained diploma training (12/25, 48%), and only 8% (2/25) had more than 15 years of experience in nursing care. For most of the competencies and the corresponding items, most rated themselves as novice or advanced beginners across domains (e.g., 16/25 (64%) in activity/mobilization; 16/25 (64%) in dysphagia assessment), with higher competence in basic anatomy/physiology.

The majority of nurses are either novice or advanced beginners when it comes to competence levels for stroke care. Context-specific and competency-based continuing education is needed in implementing stroke evidence-based practices and designing stroke-based training for nurses to achieve optimal competency.