title: Towards a competency assessment tool for nurses in ethics meetings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurses require specific knowledge, skills and attitudes to participate competently in various forms of ethics meetings. The literature does not state the contents of the knowledge, skills and attitudes nurses need for ethics meetings. Without such a competency profile, it cannot be assessed in how far nurses actually possess these qualities for ethics meetings.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Corroborating an existing profile of the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes in the form of a questionnaire contributes to the development of a tool to determine the competence nurses need for ethics meetings.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In how far can this profile be confirmed by a quantitative follow-up in a random sample?
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was developed to determine in how far nurses with prior involvement in ethics meetings recognise the earlier competency profile as important and comprehensive.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was made available to subscribers of the digital newsletter of three widely read nursing journals in the Netherlands. Data collection and analysis took place in the spring of 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  Care was taken to state explicitly in the questionnaire that participation in the survey was completely voluntary and anonymous.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To a high degree, nurses with involvement in ethics meetings recognise the knowledge, skills and attitudes from the earlier interviews when presented as a survey.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the sample was small, the respondents and the results reflect known characteristics of nurses serving on ethics meeting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This may be helpful to recruit and prepare nurses for professional ethics in nursing care, and to develop a tool to assess to what extent nurses actually possess competence for ethics meetings.
authors: Christian University of Applied Sciences Ede, The Netherlands; Christian University of Applied Sciences Viaa, The Netherlands bcusveller@che.nl.
authors: Bart
authors: B
authors: Cusveller
authors: Christian University of Applied Sciences Ede, The Netherlands; Christian University of Applied Sciences Viaa, The Netherlands.
authors: Annemiek
authors: A
authors: Schep-Akkerman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D017041:Ethics Committees / Q000592:standards*; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000379:methods*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Clinical ethics support; competency profile; ethics committees; moral decision-making; moral deliberation; questionnaire; survey