The gerontological nurse specialist’s core competencies in China: A cross‐sectional study

Aim To describe the core competencies of gerontological nurse specialists and investigate the factors that contribute to the development of core competencies. Design A descriptive cross‐sectional study was conducted from August 2015–March 2016. Methods The descriptive study of gerontological nurse specialists’ core competencies used a self‐assessment instrument with three first‐level domains (attitude, skill and knowledge) and 9 s‐level dimensions. A total of 225 gerontological nurse specialists from ten provinces in China were selected by a convenience sampling method. Results The average core competency score of the gerontological nurse specialists was 3.78, in the middle level(3.30–4.17/5.00). Core competency was associated with gerontological nurse specialists’ age ( p  = .005), professional title ( p  = .017), hospital level ( p  = .006) and passion for geriatric nursing ( p  = .000). The average scores of attitude, skill and knowledge were 4.45, 4.02 and 4.18, respectively. All first‐level domains were related to age ( p  ≤ .021) and passion for geriatric nursing ( p  ≤ .008); knowledge and skill were associated with professional title ( p  ≤ .045) and attitude and skill were associated with hospital level ( p  ≤ .020).