Essential clinical skills for beginning registered nurses

A research project investigating the identification of essential clinical skills for registered nurses in their first year of practice was undertaken in a number of Sydney metropolitan hospitals in Australia. Using an adaptation of the Williams & Brammer (1996) study, 206 beginning registered nurses were surveyed to determine the clinical skills they performed frequently in their daily routine, and those they considered essential. One hundred and thirty two questionnaires were returned and the responses were analysed for frequency of clinical skill performance and essential rating. The clinical skills rated as most frequently performed related to universal precautions for infection control, vital sign assessment, management of intravenous therapy, administration of all forms of medication and a wide range of patient hygiene related skills. Many clinical skills rated as essential by these nurses were not rated as performed frequently, which may indicate concern for the need to draw upon less frequently performed skills during emergency situations and thus they rate these skills as essential. This study clearly identified the clinical skills rated as performed frequently by beginning registered nurses and identified those clinical skills deemed essential to beginning nursing practice by novice nurses. A larger sample size would strengthen the reliability of these findings.