Influencing Factors of Medical Narrative Competence Among Clinical Nurses in China: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis
Yuqin Li, Rong Hu, Li Tang, Feng Chen, Wei Yang, Ying Xiao, Huilu Yao, Hongxiu Wang, Qin Mao, Xiaorong MaoAim
To investigate the current level of and influencing factors for medical narrative competence among clinical nurses in China.
Background
In China, clinical nurses generally demonstrate insufficient medical narrative competence. This condition is associated with suboptimal delivery of humanistic nursing services, frequent nurse–patient frictions, and diminished professional identity among nursing staff. It is essential to systematically explore the current situation and relevant influencing factors, so as to enhance clinical nurses’ medical narrative competence and improve the overall quality of nursing services.
Methods
Systematic searches were conducted to retrieve literature on the current status and influencing factors of medical narrative competence among clinical nurses in China from 11 databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Meta‐analysis was performed using Stata 15.0 and RevMan 5.4 software.
Results
A total of 34 studies involving 21,455 Chinese clinical nurses were included, and 17 influencing factors were identified. Meta‐analysis showed that the pooled mean total score of medical narrative competence was 147.38 (95% CI: 145.17–149.60). Factors associated with higher medical narrative competence included age > 35 years, working experience ≥ 10 years, senior professional title, head nurse or above position, male nurse status, monthly income ≥ 10,000 CNY, great familiarity with narrative medicine, and previous training experience in medical narrative. By contrast, moderate colleague support and dissatisfaction with nursing work were associated with lower medical narrative competence (all p < 0.05).
Conclusion
The medical narrative competence of clinical nurses in China is at the lower end of the moderate level and was associated with multiple individual and occupational factors.
Implication for Nursing Management
These findings may offer preliminary evidence to inform nursing management. Given the factors associated with medical narrative competence, nursing managers may consider developing targeted interventions and training programs to help enhance nurses’ competence and contribute to better nursing care quality.