An innovative approach to educating nurses to clinical competence: A randomized controlled trial.

Aim: This study examined the effect of mastery learning on new graduate nurses' skill and self-regulation practices for indwelling urinary catheter insertion in a simulated learning environment.

Background: Clinical competence is a patient safety imperative, it is therefore important to use the most effective approaches to prepare competent nurses resulting in improved patient care and clinical outcomes. Catheter associated Urinary Tract Infections (CaUTI) are a nursing quality indicator, and account for 30% of all Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HAC) annually in the US.