“It’s Not for Amateurs!”—Registered Nurses’ Experiences of Their Clinical Competence When Caring for Elderly Patients

Nurses’ clinical competence is crucial to ensure that elderly, frail patients in nursing homes are met with high-quality nursing care. Thus, this study aimed to disclose the essential meaning of registered nurses’ experiences as related to their clinical competence when caring for elderly patients with complex health needs in nursing homes. Focus group interviews and a phenomenological hermeneutical analysis were conducted revealing that the nurses balanced between being and striving to be competent. The utterance “It’s not for amateurs!” symbolized that if nurses are not clinically competent or hindered from acting competently, they may be at risk for moral distress.