Enhancing ICU Nurse Competence: A Systematic Review of Influencing Factors

ICU nurses work in high-stakes environments where competence, defined as the integration of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and experience, is essential for ensuring patient safety, reducing mortality rates, and providing effective critical care.

Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we searched critical care and nursing education journals in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and CINAHL from 2015 to June 2025 for qualitative and quantitative studies on ICU nurse competence. The search strategy incorporated terms such as "educational frameworks for critical care education," "critical care nursing orientation," and "competency-based critical care nurse education." JBI tools were used to assess quality, and narrative synthesis was applied.