Clinical Practice Competence and Its Associated Factors among Undergraduate Health Sciences Students at Bahir Dar Health Sciences Colleges, Northwest Ethiopia, 2022

Abstract Introduction: Competence is the ability to perform a task with the desired result. Clinical experience is necessary to achieve the highest level of clinical competence after appropriate theoretical and practical training. It is estimated that many women and newborns die every year around the world due to a lack of qualified medical personnel. This is usually because women do not have access to competent health professionals. Objective: This study aimed to assess clinical practice competence and its associated factors among undergraduate health sciences students at Bahir Dar Health Sciences Colleges, Northwest Ethiopia 2022. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 12-24/2022 among 403 undergraduate health sciences students at Bahir Dar Health Sciences Colleges. Simple random sampling technique was applied to select study subject and the data was collected by using a self-administered questionnaire. Data template format were prepared and entered into Epi Data version 4.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. In binary logistic regression of dependent and independent variables with P-value, ≤ 0.2 were included in multi-variable logistic regression and ≤ 0.05 were considered as significant in this study. Result: The prevalence of clinical practice competency among the study participant was 147(36.5%). students who were provide logbook [(AOR=5.40, 95% CI 2.91, 10.02)], adequate clinical cases in the clinical practice placement [(AOR=2.72, 95% CI 1.60, 4.60)], preceptor show different procedures [(AOR=2.50, 95% CI 1.33, 4.71)], student’s confidence during conducting procedure [(AOR=4.16, 95% CI 1.67, 10.35)] and the suitability of the way of teaching to the learning styles of students during skills demonstration [(AOR=2.10, 95% CI 1.00, 4.40)] were significantly associated with clinical practice competence. Conclusion: About 147 (36.5%) of study participants were clinically competent which was higher than previous studies conducted in Ethiopia. providing logbooks, adequate clinical cases, preceptor show different procedures, student’s confidence and suitability of the way of teaching to the learning styles of students were significantly associated with clinical practice competence. Implementing logbooks, selection of clinical site, enhancing confidence of students, preferred teaching and learning styles and clinical preceptor support are important to improve the clinical competence of students.