The Relation between Clinical Competency and Perceived Psychiatric Nurses Job Stress

Background: Psychiatric nurses' face a variety of stressors as shortage of nurses; lack of autonomy, lack of support from managers and unexpected psychiatric patient behavior like aggression and violence. Clinical competency is used as an index for accreditation in the hospitals. Clinical competency is a complicated concept that encompasses different aspects of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Clarifications of psychiatric nursing competency enhance and embrace recovery-oriented frameworks in their daily practice. This study was aimed to explore the relation between clinical competency and perceived psychiatric nurses' job stress. Methods: Design: A descriptive correlational research design was used. Setting: The study was conducted at Benha Hospital for mental health. Sample: A convenience sample of 74 psychiatric nurses constituted the study sample. Tools: Tool I: The Perceived Psychiatric Nurses Job Stress Scale (PNJSS) and Tool II: Clinical competency scale. Results: there was a positive relationship between levels of clinical competency and levels of perceived job -related stress among study sample. Conclusion: The current study revealed that there was a good level of clinical competency and a moderate level of perceived job stress among study sample. There was also a positive relationship between levels of clinical competency and levels of perceived job stress among study sample. Recommendations: Nurses clinical competency must be assessed regularly because of the changes in therapeutic settings and a replication of similar study with a larger sample size and use of other scales that a