title: A guideline for competency of the critical care nurse.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To maintain a high standard of quality nursing care the individual critical care nurse s competencies should be determined objectively. Few international guidelines describe the qualities required by critical care nurses to function effectively in a critical care unit. These guidelines often focus only on the education and training of critical care nurses.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To formulate and describe guidelines for the competency requirements of registered critical care nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  A focus group interview, a qualitative research method, was conducted as an open conversation in which each participant could ask questions, comment, or respond to comments. Interaction among the respondents was encouraged to stimulate in-depth discussion. The study was conducted within the framework of South African critical care nursing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The four main categories that were identified are as follows: professional competence, cognitive competence, interpersonal skills, and critical care patterns of interaction. These are described in detail along with a formulated guideline for critical care nurse competency requirements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study describes an attempt to formulate objective guidelines for critical care nurses competency requirements.
authors.affiliation: Rand Afrikaans University, Auckland Park, South Africa.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scribante
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lipman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D013019:South Africa; D013041:Specialties, Nursing / Q000592:standards*