The Influence of Clinical Competence on Self-leadership, Communication Skills and Emotional Intelligence in Nursing Students

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing of self-leadership, communication skills, and emotional intelligence on clinical competence of nursing students.

Methods/Statistical analysis: The design of this study is a descriptive research. The subjects were 190 students in fourth grade of nursing at three universities located in two cities in Republic of Korea. The collected data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression using SPSS 20.0 program.

Findings: Self-leadership(r=0.51, p<.001), communication skills(r=0.48, p<.001) and emotional intelligence(r=0.41, p<.001) showed a significant positive correlation with clinical competence of nursing students. The factors influencing clinical competence were self-leadership(ß=0.33) and communication skills(ß=0.22), and the explanatory power of these factors was 31.8%.

Improvements/Applications: The results of this study suggest that it is important to improve the clinical competence by enhancing self-leadership and communication skills of nursing students. Therefore, the results of this study are suggested to be used as a basis for the development of educational programs to improve clinical competence.