Authors
- Geoffrey Axiak – University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq, Malta; European Specialist Nurses Organisation, Malta
Article type:
Letter to Editor
Abstract:
It is a well-known fact that defining “competence” has never been an easy task. The literature shows that, over the years, several authors have attempted to define it definitively, but without clear consensus. Authors such as Tabari-Khomeiran et al. (2007) and Camelo & Angerami (2013) primarily describe competence in relation to how skillful a nurse is in performing specific tasks (1,2).
This was also confirmed during a short seminar presented by Axiak & Scicluna Ward (2026), where the majority of nurses attending—working across different Maltese healthcare settings—were asked what they understood by “competence” (3). The results are presented in Table 1 and show that, even today, many nurses still perceive competence as being mainly related to knowledge and technical skills. The psychosocial dimension of competence is often overlooked.
Keywords:
Artificial intelligence