Synthesizing core nursing skills to support behavioural-based interviews for nurses in the UAE: A nominal group study.

AIM: To develop a bank of core clinical and performance skills to inform the future development of structured interview questions to aid the recruitment of nurses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). BACKGROUND: The UAE depends on expatriate nurses with variable clinical and educational backgrounds. Given the global shortage of nurses, the UAE requires innovative recruitment methods to attract and retain quality nurses and ensure high-quality health care services. METHOD: Three cycles of a virtual nominal group technique (NGT) were used to elicit consensus from thirty (n = 30) frontline nurses on the core clinical and performance skills needed to work in three specialty areas (paediatric, outpatient and telemetry/transitional care). RESULTS: Ten performance skills and ten clinical skills were identified for each specialty area. Performance skills included communication and critical thinking with key clinical skills being medication administration/use, cardiac monitoring troubleshooting and recognizing arrhythmias. CONCLUSION: The identified core performance and clinical nursing skills provide the basis for the future development of specialty-specific questions or scenarios to aid interviewers in achieving an informed selection process. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The identified core performance and clinical skills provide the foundations for an appropriate interviewing/selection process, staff orientation, staff appraisal and continuous professional development.

Missing the point: Quality-driven healthcare institutions may mistakenly disregard their role in nursing and medical education.

Aligned with international standards, the UAE Government and many other developing countries in the region (GCC and MENA) have started to implement strict quality improvement initiatives to develop their healthcare systems. Most of these initiatives are geared toward meeting patient satisfaction and avoiding circumstances or events that would dissatisfy patients. It is also used to measure healthcare institution performance, assess efficiency and determine their funding and reimbursement. With this emphasis on quality, it is also important for healthcare organizations to fulfill their other functions. Among the most important is performing their teaching role to prepare future healthcare professionals, and attracting and retaining healthcare professionals. These roles are also a paramount for a quality, sustained healthcare system. However, clinical educators and managers reflect on how these roles seem to be frequently missed or at least compromised while applying the quality assurance measures in the region developing countries. This reflective paper discusses this concern and suggests possible strategies that may help overcome this challenge and thus contributing to the achievement of the quality goal of the service in a more comprehensive and sustainable manner. The similarities between the UAE healthcare system and neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council and the Middle East/North African countries mean these challenges and solutions may resonate with these countries and support the implementation of effective health services in these countries as well.