Background
Bridging programs are offered to support migrated nurses, but in some countries, nurses can also choose to validate their nursing competence. Thus far, little is known about how migrated nurses estimate their competence when they are about to enter working life in a new country and how this differs from regular nursing students.
Objective
To compare two groups of internationally educated nurses' – those from bridging programs and those who chose validation – and one group of regular nursing students' self-rated professional competence when they are about to start working as registered nurses. The hypotheses were: 1) internationally educated nurses rate their competence higher than regular nursing students and 2) those from bridging programs rate their competence higher than those who chose validation. In addition, the aim was to compare the groups' self-efficacy and thriving.
Design
A cross-sectional, comparative design.
Settings
Five universities in Sweden.
Participants
Nurses educated in non-European countries from a bridging program (n = 128, response rate 79.0 %) or validation process (n = 61, response rate 59.2 %) and students graduating from the regular nursing program (n = 213, response rate 68.3 %).
Methods
Data were collected with coded questionnaires (paper or online) between 2019 and 2021 and analyzed using non-parametric tests, e.g., Kruskal-Wallis.
Results
Both groups of internationally educated nurses had higher median scores on total nursing competence (both groups p < 0.001), general self-efficacy (bridging programs p < 0.001, validation p = 0.020), and total thriving (bridging programs p < 0.001, validation p = 0.012) than regular nursing students did. However, comparing the groups of internationally educated nurses showed no significant differences.
Conclusion
Internationally educated nurses rated their competence high but with differences within the groups for different competence areas. More research is needed to investigate whether the different paths are important for nurses' competence later in working life, and some of the competence areas might need extra attention when nurses start working.