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Older people are present in a variety of nursing settings and have distinct care needs. Evidence about the competencies required is crucial when developing the profession. The aim of the study was to describe competence areas relevant in gerontological nursing. A qualitative, descriptive study design was used with 27 participants included. Finnish gerontological nursing professionals who worked at several healthcare organizations and in education were interviewed in five focus-group interviews. The interviews were carried out between October 2017 and February 2018 and were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The study is reported according to SRQR guidelines. Analysis indicated four main competence areas for gerontological nursing: clinical nursing competence; competence in promoting health and well-being; interaction competence; and ethical competence. Registered nurses (RNs) must possess multiple competencies when caring for older people which should be taken into account in nursing and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health and social care professionals' competencies have traditionally been separated because of the different aims of the two professions. These competencies need to be integrated, to make sure that seamless services are provided that meet the often complex needs of patients and clients in a coordinated and timely way. The aim of this integrative review was to identify, describe and synthetise previous studies on integrated competencies in health and social care. Electronic literature searches were carried out on the CINAHL, ProQuest, PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus and SocIndex databases for peer‐reviewed scientific papers that were published in English between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2019. This identified 3,231 papers, after duplicates were removed, and 18 focused on the integration of social workers' competencies with health care. Other types of integration were not found. The value added by integrating social workers' competencies with health care focused on engaging working orientation, improving communication with family members, increasing understanding of service resources and mastering successful discharge procedures so that they met comprehensive, complex health and well‐being needs. Social workers added value when they worked with multi‐professional teams, but there were challenges to integrating competencies and these were related to professional collaboration and fragmented leadership. In future, more attention needs to be paid to diversifying and optimising the integration of professional health and social care competencies that meet clients' and patients' care and service needs. It is also vital to focus on developing the professional and leadership strategies that are needed to combine those competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The study aimed to describe and explain the self‐assessed gerontological nursing competence levels of Finnish nursing students and factors relating to it. Design: A cross‐sectional study design, reported by The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology guidelines. Methods: Data were collected with the GeroNursingCom instrument, which features 53 items relating to 11 competence factors. The K‐clustering technique and the Chi‐squared, Kruskal‐Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were used to analyse the data. Results: Seven hundred and ninety‐nine nursing students from nine randomly selected higher education institutions were invited to participate in 2019. Three distinct student profiles were identified according to the data (N = 274): Profile A—lower intermediate competence (23.1% of students), Profile B—intermediate competence (45.8%) and Profile C—high competence (31.1%). The strongest competence area for all students was appreciative encounter and interaction, and the weakest was supporting the older person's sexuality. Nursing students have diverse backgrounds and their overall competence in gerontological nursing is shaped in part by their previous education, motivations and work experience. Relevance to clinical practice: Recognizing students' different gerontological nursing competence profiles enables the implementation of targeted education to improve competence in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To develop and psychometrically test an instrument – GeroNursingCom – that measures gerontological nursing competence of nursing students. Design: An instrument development guided by COSMIN guidelines. Method: The development and testing of the GeroNursingCom instrument proceeded according to four distinct phases: (a) establishing a theoretical background; (b) testing face and content validity; (c) examining structural validity; and (d) testing internal consistency. The items of instrument were based on a theoretical framework developed from a comprehensive literature review and focus group interviews with experts (N = 27) in spring 2018. Content validity was assessed by nine experts in gerontological nursing, while face validity was tested in a pilot study including 36 nursing students. Structural validity was examined with exploratory factor analysis with 267 nursing students from nine universities of applied sciences. The internal consistency was established with Cronbach's alpha. The data were collected in spring and autumn 2019. The data analysis was conducted with multivariate statistical methods. Results: The GeroNursingCom development and testing process yielded an instrument that includes 53 items across 11 factors: (a) appreciative encounters and interactions with older people; (b) medication for older people; (c) nutrition for older people; (d) safe living environment for older people; (e) supporting the functioning of older people; (f) end‐of‐life care; (g) developing one's competencies; (h) supporting an older person's mental well‐being; (i) supporting an older person's sexuality; (j) guiding self‐care among older people; and (k) responding to challenging situations. The instrument was able to explain 66.15% of the total observed variance, while Cronbach's alpha values for individual items varied from 0.75–0.89. Conclusion: TheGeroNursingCom instrument can be used to measure gerontological nursing competence among nursing students to improve gerontological nursing education and/or geriatric care. Impact: Graduating nursing students must develop versatile competencies to face the multiple needs of older patients and curriculums need to be further developed to ensure students are prepared for gerontological nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Hoitotiede is the property of Hoitotieteiden Tutkimusseura HTTS r.y. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)