Clinical competence and team roles of anaesthetic nurses: results of a multicenter cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Nurse anesthetists play a critical role in ensuring patient safety during the perioperative period; however, their clinical competence and role within the team remain insufficiently studied at the national level. OBJECTIVE: To assess the self-reported level of clinical competence among nurse anesthetists, its association with years of professional experience and qualification category, and to identify their predominant team roles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted among nurse anesthetists. A structured 34-item questionnaire was used, comprising the following sections: socio-professional characteristics, self-assessment of clinical competence, and team roles based on the Belbin Team Roles Inventory. Clinical competence was assessed on a scale from 0 to 100; a predefined threshold was used to classify respondents as competent. Statistical methods includes: χ2 test, Kendall’s tau (τ), and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (rs) with 95 % confidence intervals. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 172 respondents were included in the study (median age 42 years, interquartile range 33–49). Only 17.8 % of nurses with limited work experience (< 5 years) reached the competence threshold, compared with 43.6 % in the group with 6–10 years of experience, followed by a decline in more experienced groups, indicating a non-linear relationship between clinical competence and years of experience. No consistent linear correlation was found between work experience and competence scores. Work experience showed a moderate correlation with age and qualification category, but only a weak correlation with competence. CONCLUSIONS: The traditional linear paradigm “experience → qualification category → competence” appears to be ambiguous in the development of professional competence among nurses. The findings support the need to shift from formal consideration of years of experience toward continuous professional development, including regular objective skills assessment, simulation-based training, and consideration of team role profiles in workforce organization.