The competence gap in community care: Imbalance between expected and actual nursing staff
competence
Sammanfattning
Research that examines nursing staff competence that is necessary in order to provide safe
community care is called for. This literature review examines Norwegian policy documents and
international research with the aim to assess whether there is a match between expected and actual
nursing staff competence in community care. Twelve policy documents and ten research articles
were included in the review, of which key themes were identified. The Norwegian government expects
a wide range of competence ranging from specific tasks in medical management to adhering to safe
practice and care guidelines. Major discrepancies were identified between the advanced competence
expected in policy documents and the actual competence as described by the research literature,
which was mainly concerned with assistance with activities of daily living, medical knowledge, and
personal abilities. There is a general lack of opportunities for competence development in the sector,
implying that a general development of nursing staff competence is a pressing need in community
care.