Development of Clinical Assessment Rubric for Critical Soft Skill Competencies in Nurses

High turnover contributes to the United States’ nurse shortage, particularly new graduate nurses’ (NGN) high rate of departure (27.6%) within their first year of practice. Low nursing competency is often responsible for NGNs’ high turnover rate. Although employer orientation programs develop NGNs’ hard skills (knowledge and performance), achieving satisfactory levels of soft skills (attitudes and behaviors) is also essential to NGNs’ competency and retention. However, the intangible nature of soft skills makes it difficult to evaluate. To address this issue, in Phase I, an integrative literature review explored NGNs’ self-assessed competencies. In Phase II, based on review findings and Benner’s framework “From Novice to Expert,” a qualitative descriptive study identified critical soft skills and developed behavioral indicators at four competency levels for each skill: beginning, developing, accomplished, and exemplary. In Phase I, a database search ultimately yielded 16 articles that were evaluated for quality. These articles provided descriptions of NGNs’ self-assessed competencies, classified as perceived strengths and weaknesses that informed the qualitative descriptive study. Purposeful sampling recruited 13 clinical nurse educators/preceptors from multiple units in one large hospital. One-on-one participant interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and subjected to direct content analysis using NVivo. Finally, the literature review and qualitative study findings were compared. Phase I findings revealed that NGNs’ self-assessed strengths focused on technical skills and clinical knowledge while their weaknesses focused primarily on soft skills: communication, teamwork, helping role, and professionalism. Phase II data analysis revealed five soft skill themes: personal growth, effective interaction, professionalism, teamwork, and caring role. Descriptors of four competency levels were derived for 20 subthemes. This study is the first to identify critical soft skills to be evaluated in NGNs. The study results provide a useful guide for academic and clinical nurse educators’ assessments of NGNs’ developing competencies. These assessments will promote improvement in NGN soft skill competencies and ultimately NGNs’ retention in practice. The end goal of this research is to apply the study findings to the construction of a clinical assessment rubric for soft skills in NGNs and other nurses.