The gerontological nurse specialist's core competencies in China: A cross-sectional study.

Aim: describe the core competencies of gerontological nurse specialists and investigate the factors that contribute to the development of core competencies.

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2015-March 2016.

Methods: The descriptive study of gerontological nurse specialists' core competencies used a self-assessment instrument with three first-level domains (attitude, skill and knowledge) and 9 s-level dimensions. A total of 225 gerontological nurse specialists from ten provinces in China were selected by a convenience sampling method.

Results: The average core competency score of the gerontological nurse specialists was 3.78, in the middle level(3.30-4.17/5.00). Core competency was associated with gerontological nurse specialists' age ( = .005), professional title ( = .017), hospital level ( = .006) and passion for geriatric nursing ( = .000). The average scores of attitude, skill and knowledge were 4.45, 4.02 and 4.18, respectively. All first-level domains were related to age ( ≤ .021) and passion for geriatric nursing ( ≤ .008); knowledge and skill were associated with professional title ( ≤ .045) and attitude and skill were associated with hospital level ( ≤ .020).