The doctoral dissertation in the field of Nursing Science will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Kuopio campus. The public examination will also be streamed online.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
Healthcare Professionals’ Core Competencies, Quality of Care and Patient Safety: Concept Analysis and Perceptions of Patients and Professionals in Oman. This topic is important to respond to global PESTEL (politics, economics, society, technology, environment, and law) changes and to shift practice paradigms from volume to value. This aspires to develop greater understanding on three main buckets: (1) capacity for the healthcare system, (2) quality of execution, and (3) sustainability. These buckets of outcomes shall improve the operational effectiveness within healthcare institutions and attain better collaboration for prevention and wellness. I am confident that this research program will considerably contribute to the quality of nursing care and sustained health in Oman – and beyond.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
This study evaluated the characteristics and psychometric properties of core competency instruments based on the COSMIN checklist and quality of evidence. In addition, this study identified three defining attributes associated with the competence transformation concept, encapsulating the 11 core competencies for HCPs. The identified core competencies were then used to produce a new and innovative competence-oriented transformation model. This model can serve as a meaningful index to measure competence transformation through the following defining attributes: (a) capacity for renewal, (b) quality of execution and (c) sustainability. In this research, the adopted instrument (includes 11 core competencies) was developed from valid and reliable instruments and implemented at healthcare settings in Oman. Furthermore, this study explored the level of core competencies of healthcare professionals and how can they interact and integrate better to upgrade the healthcare delivery system. The level was found to be excellent in reference to the target level of magnet standards. In addition, this study explored how quality of care and patient safety is perceived by nurses, physicians, and receiving patients (the level of interplay between processes and final outcome). The overall level of quality of care and patient safety from the perspectives of both patients and HCPs were found to stand at excellent level. This research has provided empirical measurements that indicate an elevated level of patient satisfaction and competent healthcare delivery professionals in Oman.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
The excellent stance of the core competencies of healthcare professionals in Oman using a comprehensive instrument provides a good indicator of the overall healthcare system in Oman. The sustainability of such excellent level could be the focus of future policy and technical leadership at the MOH in Oman.
The findings of the regression analysis can provide good insights for cross-learning, upskilling and wider capacity building through establishing seamless avenues for younger professionals to learn from expatriates and experienced professionals.
Implementation of research and evidence based practice is a key competence that requires further development. This competence can impact the capacity for renewal of healthcare institutions in Oman. The capacity for renewal is a lumping parameter that reflects the level of engagement, agility and forward-looking for a given healthcare organisation in relation to the internal and external transformations. These implications will also provide important insights to the global community towards improving the quality of care and patient safety from a core competence perspective.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
This study was conducted in a descriptive phase with two sub-studies (I- II) and an evaluation phase with three sub-studies (III–V). The descriptive phase incorporated (a) a systematic review of the characteristics and psychometric properties of existing instruments that are used to assess healthcare professionals' (HCPs) core competencies in clinical settings and (b) a concept analysis to define the concept of competence transformation in healthcare contexts and develop an operational framework. The outcome of this phase was set to produce an adopted instrument that can be used in the evaluation phase to measure the core competence level of HCPs in Oman; and an innovative framework that can incorporate these competencies and provide a competence-oriented transformation measure.
The evaluation phase incorporated a set of cross-sectional studies during which data were collected from a proportional-stratified sampling of nurses and physicians working at representative healthcare institutions in Oman who were administered the Healthcare Professional Core Competency Instrument (HPCCI), a convenient sampling of adult patients from two tertiary hospitals in Oman who were administered the Revised Humane Caring Scale (RHCS), and patients and HCPs from three departments at two tertiary hospitals in Oman who answered two items developed and included by researchers at the end of HPCCI and RHCS to rate the overall quality of care and patient safety. The outcome of this phase was set to produce measurement of the level of core competence of HCPs working at healthcare institutions in Oman; and measurement of the level of quality of care and patient safety from the perspectives of patients and HCPs.
This research is novel as it investigated the interplay between the trilemma of core competence, quality of care, and patient safety. Continuous measurement of HCPs’ core competencies, quality of care and patient safety from the perspectives of both patients and HCPs shall provide insightful opportunities in existing practices that can further promote delivery services and assure growth. These opportunities shall strengthen the overall delivery structure at the healthcare institutions in Oman in line with the Sultanate’s Health Vision 2050. The findings will also provide leveraging lines of sight and benchmarks to the global healthcare community in the spaces of core competencies, quality of care and patient safety.
The doctoral dissertation of Fatma Al Jabri, MSc, RN, entitled Healthcare Professionals’ Core Competencies, Quality of Care and Patient Safety: Concept Analysis and Perceptions of Patients and Professionals in Oman will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The Opponent in the public examination will be Professor Kristiina Mikkonen of the University of Oulu, and the Custos will be Professor Hannele Turunen of the University of Eastern Finland.
Doctoral defence
For further information, please contact:
Fatma Al Jabri, fatma (a) uef.fi
