Effects of the Clinical Core Competency Empowerment Program for New Graduate Nurses Led by Clinical Nurse Educator

The purpose of this study is to develop the Clinical Core Competency Empowerment Program (CCCEP) according to existing educational guidelines and identify the effectiveness of the developed program. The CCCEP is a 38-hour, 8-week program consisting of three empowerment modules: basic competency, system-based competency, and practical competency. This program was revised through an expert content validity verification process and offered to 47 participants-all new graduate nurses-from March to July 2020. The nurses' competency was assessed before, immediately after, and 8 weeks after the CCCEP was rolled out; the results showed that the nurses' clinical core competency had significantly increased following the intervention (F=31.65, p <.001). Specifically, the sub-factors of their clinical core competency were significantly improved, including data collection (F=14.32, p <.001), basic nursing care (F=48.70, p <.001), communication (F=32.35, p <.001), critical thinking (F=9.92, p <.001), teaching and leadership (F=3.72, p <.032), and nursing management (F=8.25, p <.001). Therefore, these results suggest that the use of the CCCEP could improve new nurses' clinical core competence and the quality of nursing practice.