ay in which states can combat the problem, more training in terms of what is required for licensed nurses and what is required for licensing renewal.
The foregoing facts make investigation of nurse training and its relationship to competency an important and significant area of study; and one way to study this is through a review of the existing research in the area. The purpose of this paper is to provide such a review. The review is broken down into two parts: (1) review of studies that have looked at the relationship between number or amount of training (in a nursing program) and tests of student competency; and (2) review of studies on other factors that influence performance on tests of nursing students competency. The review ends with a summary and the formulation of conclusions about training and competency based on the reviewed literature.
Relationship of Hours of Training To Competence
Is the competency of nurses improved proportionately to the hours of training they receive in nurse education programs? There, at least at first, does appear to be reason to believe that simply increasing the number of hours nurses are trained will increase their competence. This because it is fairly well established that, in general, benefits and advantages to individuals tend to build with growing amounts of education. For example, Brown (1999) notes that, regardless of one's profession or career, increased education is associated with: increased knowledge of one's discipline or field; greater job options; greater income; and, to some extent, stronger on-the-job performance.
Unfortunately, no study has directly examined for a relationship between hours of training and competency in the area of nursing. However, there is pertinent literature in this regard.
For example, some authors have suggested that it is not necessarily the number of hours of training nurses receive that makes for high levels of competency but rather the nu...