THE EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION ON CLINICAL COMPETENCY OF SENIOR NURSING STUDENTS

Professional socialization is a critical aspect of the evolution of nursing students.
This process begins with the entry of people into the nursing education program and continues with the
completion of nursing education and workplace entry. This study aimed to investigate the effect of
professional socialization on clinical competency of nursing students in the field.
Materials&Methods: This experimental study was performed on 62 nursing students in Mahabad Azad
University who were selected through census and randomly divided into control (n = 31) and
intervention (n = 31) groups. The intervention group attended 15 sessions of professional socialization
program. A two-part questionnaire consisting of: a) demographic questionnaire and b)clinical
competency questionnaire was used to evaluate and compare the control and intervention groups. The
collected data were analyzed by SPSS 25 software. Paired t-test was used to compare pre and post
intervention scores, and independent t-test was used to compare between groups and Smirnov
Kolmogorov test was used to check the normality of data distribution.
Results: The results of this study showed that the professional socialization educational program
delivered by the intervention group was effective on nursing students' clinical competency (P=0.0001).
Conclusion: Professional socialization curriculum can have a significant impact on establishing and
strengthening clinical competency of nursing students. Therefore, it is suggested that nursing education
authorities utilize an organized, systematic and systematic training paradigm of professional
socialization training based on new educational strategies in undergraduate nursing students' curricula
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing education courses.