Evaluation of a structured training model for organ transplant specialist nurse trainees: a single-group pre–post study with six-month follow-up

Organ transplantation nursing demands advanced competencies in perioperative management, long-term follow-up, patient education, and interdisciplinary collaboration. However, structured training models with comprehensive outcome evaluation remain inadequately described. This study evaluated a structured training model for organ transplant specialist nurse trainees and examined factors associated with changes in self-reported nursing competence. In this single-group pre-post study, registered clinical nurses selected by their hospitals for advanced organ transplantation specialty training completed a 480-hour full-time program across two cohorts (2022–2023). The model comprised advanced nursing practice leadership (2 weeks/80 hours), specialist theoretical coursework (3 weeks/120 hours), clinical placement at a provincial training-base hospital (4 weeks/140 hours), and supervised practice (4 weeks/140 hours) with one-to-one mentorship and logbook-guided standardization. Self-reported nursing competence was assessed using the Chinese version of the Nurse Competence Scale (NCS) before and after training. Secondary outcomes included program completion assessment performance, teaching satisfaction (11-item questionnaire, 5-point Likert scale), and self-reported workplace activities at 6 months. Paired t tests with Holm-Bonferroni correction and exploratory Pearson correlations were used for analysis. Forty-three trainees from six Chinese provinces were included in the final analysis. Mean total NCS scores increased from 72.74 ± 3.93 to 80.44 ± 2.45 (mean difference 7.70 points; 95% CI 6.87–8.53; p < 0.0001; Cohen’s d z =2.86), with significant gains across all seven dimensions. The mean overall teaching satisfaction score was 4.88 ± 0.11, and 470 of 473 item-level responses (99.37%) were rated as satisfied. At 6-month follow-up, 100% reported organizing complex case discussions, 93.0% reported conducting teaching rounds and quality improvement activities, and 60.5% reported providing nursing consultations. Changes in NCS scores were inversely correlated with age ( r =-0.427, p = 0.004) and clinical experience ( r =-0.493, p < 0.001). Completion of this structured, theory-practice integrated training model was associated with higher multidimensional self-reported nursing competence and reported participation in workplace activities among organ transplant specialist nurse trainees. Because this was a single-group pre-post study, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary evidence to inform specialist nurse education, and controlled multicenter studies with objective outcomes are needed.