title: Professional Quality of Life and Clinical Competencies among Korean Nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clinical competence among nurses is an essential requirement for the provision of safe and effective patient care. This study aims to classify types of professional quality of life experienced by Korean nurses, and examine the relationship between demographic and professional characteristics and clinical competence among nurses experiencing each type.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 335 nurses completed questionnaires assessing professional quality of life, clinical competence, and demographic and professional characteristics. Following identification of the underlying factors of professional quality of life, we classified participants into three clusters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant differences in age, marital status, religion, educational status, and position between clusters. Results also revealed that nurses with high compassion satisfaction and low compassion fatigue (burnout, secondary traumatic stress) tended to have higher clinical competence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that it is possible to directly examine the relationship between professional quality of life level and clinical competence among nurses. Thus, interventions to increase nurses' compassion satisfaction and relieve compassion fatigue are needed, as professional quality of life may affect clinical competence.
authors.affiliation: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Kyunghee
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Hallym Polytechnic University, Chuncheon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yonghee
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yeunhee
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kwak
authors.affiliation: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: jisu80@cau.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ji-su
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: clinical competence; clinical nurse specialist; cluster analysis; quality of life