Abstract
BACKGROUND: The expected competencies of nurses in home-based care remain unclear. A list of professional competencies that are agreed upon by a panel of content expert are needed to offer some form of standardized expectations among nurses and home-based care stakeholders. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the content validity of the professional competencies identified for home-based nursing care. DESIGN: An e-Delphi method was used. SETTINGS: A purposive sampling of local and international experts in home-based nursing care or community nursing. METHODS: Preliminary competency items were developed inductively from earlier studies and deductively by a steering committee. Sixteen experts performed two rounds of content validation. The Item-Content Validity Index, Scale-Content Validity Index/Average (S-CVI/Ave) and Fleiss' kappa coefficient were evaluated. RESULTS: In Round One, the list was revised to 49 items. In Round Two, the list was revised to 45 items, categorized into eight domains of practice: (1) client assessment and care planning; (2) nursing care in a home-based setting; (3) management of clients with health conditions, (4) interpersonal relationships and communications; (5) collaboration and teamwork; (6) critical thinking and problem-solving skills; (7) professional development and leadership; and (8) innovation and research. The S-CVI/Ave was 0.95. The overall acceptable clarity was 94.1 %. CONCLUSIONS: This study generated a list of competencies that have reached consensus among a panel of experts. The list offers insights into the expected competencies of home-based care nurses. Further validity and reliability testing is needed to determine the underlying structure of the competencies.