An exploration of core competences of newly qualified nurses: a case study

The health care system is undergoing rapid change. Given the ever changing healthcare environment the responsibilities, competencies and skills expectations of new nurses is escalating. Therefore, there is need for a deeper and more systematic assessment of the competences affect on core competence of nurses. With this background, this paper attempts to identify and analyze the core competence for nurses. Thus, a DEMATEL method is applied. The DEMATEL not only can convert the relations between cause and effect of criteria into a visual structural model, but can also be used as a way to identify the key factors. The DEMATEL can be used as an effective method to handle the inner dependences within a set of criteria. Results show that the Personal feature Perspective is the causal dimension for the evaluation of core competences. This paper draws on the research results for managerial practice implications.