A Survey of Correlation between Professional Identity and Clinical Competency of Psychiatric Nurses

Introduction: Clinical competency and knowledge of the effective factors are of critical importance in nursing. Competency, self-esteem, and self-knowledge are achievable through professional identity. Employees’ participation in and attachment to their professional role is contingent considerably upon their professional identity. In light of this, the present study is aimed at determining correlation between professional identity and clinical competence of the nurses working in psychiatric wards of the hospitals affiliated with Tehran-based medical sciences universities. Methodology: This correlative study was conducted on 125 nurses working in psychiatric wards of Tehran-based hospitals affiliated with medical sciences universities. Data gathering tool of the study was a researcher-designed questionnaire to collect demographic, clinical competency, and professional identity data of the participants. For data analyzing, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18 was used. Findings: The results showed 91.2% of the participants evaluated their professional identity at good (47.2%) and very good (44%) levels; and 78.2% evaluated their clinical competency at very good level. The results also indicated positive and significant relationship between professional identity and clinical competency(r = 0.32, p = 0.001). In addition, none of the demographical variables were related to professional identity and clinical competency. Conclusion: There is positive relationship between clinical competency and professional identity, which means that development of positive attitudes regarding the psychiatric nursing can lead to higher clinical competency of the participants. The findings of the study highlighted the weight and role of positive attitude regarding the professional identity. It could result in increase of clinical competency and deserved attention of hospital’s managers.