Mapping of hemodialysis nurses expertises

Abstract

Nursing competency varies throughout the different areas of care, in horizontal levels. Within each area of clinical practice, competencies move in vertical sense: different abilities of performances can be easily perceived by managers, but above all by the patient who is able to value which nurses are more competent than others.

The entry of new nurses in a dialysis unit induces a sort of “destabilization” which involves not only the tutor but all staff. Appropriate training timing and an existing competence balanced group setting allow better out comes. But “time of experience” itself does not assure that required skills have been achieved by each nurse., Mapping the competences allow the manager to plan the real possibility of his/her staff to sustain group growth and group turn-over. The Benner's model of competencies has been use to map nursing personnel in performing care and moving into deeper clinical practice levels of competence in order to perform efficient care and to address new nurses into whole dialysis unit clinical practice pathways.