The impact of structural empowerment and psychological capital on competence among Chinese baccalaureate nursing students: A questionnaire survey

Background: Competence in nursing has been increasingly addressed. However, studies from the international literature have demonstrated that graduate nurses are not ready and they are not competent to provide safe and effective nursing care. Therefore, it is important to assess nursing students' competence and to explore the relevant factors for improving nursing students' competence and the quality of nursing care. Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of structural empowerment (an environmental resource) and psychological capital (an intrapersonal resource) on baccalaureate nursing students' competence. Design and methods: The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. A total of 300 senior baccalaureate nursing students in China practicing in five major tertiary teaching hospitals were invited to participate in the current survey. A total of 286 students completed the survey and were evaluated statistically. Thus, the response rate was 95.3%. Results: The results of the study indicate that nursing students have medium-high levels of competence, and medium-high levels of structural empowerment and psychological capital. Students with perceived higher levels of structure empowerment and psychological capital were more likely to achieve higher levels of competence. Conclusions: Structural empowerment and psychological capital were significantly and positively correlated with students' competence. The findings implicate that nursing managers and educators should not only promote interventions to enhance competence of baccalaureate nursing students but also focus on creating a supportive clinical learning environment and strengthen their positive intrapersonal resource. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.