Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives on Nursing Competency: A Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence

This study systematically evaluates healthcare professionals' views on nursing competency in an effort to provide a foundation for developing an evaluation framework for it.

Competency is the core part of determining nurses' talent. This study represents a meta-synthesis of qualitative research on the competency of medical staff for nurses and, as such, provides a reference for exploring innovative nursing human resource management models.

We searched Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and CINAHL for qualitative studies on nursing competency published from their respective inceptions to February 2024. Literature quality was assessed using the 2016 Joanna Briggs Institute criteria, and a subsequent meta-synthesis was used to analyze the data.

Ten studies from Asian developing countries were finally included. From these studies, the views of medical staff regarding the capabilities required to hold nursing positions, including complexity of personal traits, comprehensive knowledge and skill requirements, specialized competency requirements, and requirements for advanced nursing roles, were systematically categorized and summarized.

The diverse views of healthcare professionals on nursing competency in the healthcare settings of Asian developing countries were characterized by various traits and a multidimensional perspective on the development of the nursing profession.

This study systematically delineates the multidimensional expectations held by healthcare professionals in Asia concerning nurses' competencies and finds that the region's nursing profession is undergoing a profound transformation from "technical operational labor" to "knowledge-intensive profession." It therefore may provide references for educational system reform, clinical training, and career path planning and policy formulation.

This meta-synthesis may help to enable nurses to formulate individualized career development plans that are both suited to their own characteristics and responsive to the evolving demands of the healthcare industry IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: The healthcare landscape in Asia has been undergoing a profound transformation. Driven by population aging, persistent nursing workforce shortages, and the advancement of digital transformation, multiple factors have rendered the professional demands placed on nurses by other healthcare professionals increasingly complex. In response to this shift, policymakers can adopt a series of measures, including broadening nurses' scope of practice; advancing nursing education reform; reforming the nurse compensation system to ensure effective recruitment, retention, and equitable deployment; implementing mandatory staffing standards; and providing institutional support and resources for nurses' professional development.