• Rebecca Baxter and David Edvardsson.
• Department of Nursing, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: rebecca.baxter@umu.se.
• Nurse Educ Today. 2018 Jun 1; 65: 156-161.

BackgroundPostgraduate education is said to support the development of nurses' professional competence and confidence, essential to the delivery of safe and effective care. However, there is a shortness of empirical evidence to demonstrate an increase to nurses' self-reported confidence and competence on completion of critical care postgraduate certificate-level education.ObjectivesTo explore the impact of a critical care postgraduate certificate course on nurses' self-reported competence and confidence. To explore the psychometric properties and performance of the Critical Care Competence and Confidence Questionnaire.DesignA quasi-experimental pre/post-test design.ParticipantsA total population sample of nurses completing a critical care postgraduate certificate course at an Australian University.MethodsThe Critical Care Competence and Confidence Questionnaire was developed for this study to measure nurses' self-reported competence and confidence at baseline and follow up. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explore sample characteristics and changes between baseline and follow-up. Reliability of the questionnaire was explored using Cronbach's Alpha and item-total correlations.ResultsThere was a statistically significant increase in competence and confidence between baseline and follow-up across all questionnaire domains. Satisfactory reliability estimates were found for the questionnaire.ConclusionsCompletion of a critical care postgraduate certificate course significantly increased nurses' perceived competence and confidence. The Critical Care Competence and Confidence Questionnaire was found to be psychometrically sound for measuring nurses' self-reported competence and confidence.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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