Purpose. This study is a descriptive research study to confirm the nursing professionalism, self-leadership, and clinical competence of nursing students and to identify factors affecting clinical competence. Methods. This study conducted a structured-...
Purpose. This study is a descriptive research study to confirm the nursing professionalism, self-leadership, and clinical competence of nursing students and to identify factors affecting clinical competence. Methods. This study conducted a structured-questionnaire survey with 179 nursing students to look into their nursing professionalism, self-leadership, and clinical competence. Results. According to the study result, nursing professionalism scored 3.79 on average out of 5points, self-leadership 3.79 on average, and clinical competence 3.75 on average. It was found that clinical competence had significantly positive correlations with nursing professionalism (r=.62, p<.001) and self-leadership (r=.57, p<.001). According to regression analysis, the factors affecting clinical competence were nursing professionalism(β=.437, p<.001), self-leadership(β=.350, p<.001) and explanatory power was 46.4%. Conclusions. Given the above results, in order to improve clinical competence of nursing students, nursing educational institutes need to find an educational plan which can contribute to increasing nursing professionalism and self-leadership.