Methods. The study was conducted in one third level health care institution during September 2014 and January 2015 in Lithuania. The study was based on the nurse competence scale, designed by Finnish researchers Leino-Kilpi, Meretoja, and Kuokkanen. In total, 103 operating-room nurses participated in the anonymous survey (response rate – 78.6 %). A permission of the Bioethics Centre of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences was obtained for the research. The study employed descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, dispersion analysis.

Results. The majority of surveyed nurses were women (n=99, 96%) whose mean age was 43±8.98 years, mean professional experience was 19.5±9.10 years, and the mean work experience at an operating-room was 17±8.51 years. The total competence score of operating-room nurses was very high (80.05 of 100), and operating-room nurses with university education (n=43) assessed their professional competence higher. The competence elements related to critical situation management (mean range, 3.23), work role (mean range, 2.9) and therapeutic interventions (mean range, 2.53) were assessed best by operating-room nurses; meanwhile, the elements in the category of teaching/coaching were assessed to be lowest (mean range, 1.85).

Conclusions. Special attention in operating rooms should be placed on quality assurance and teaching, as the competence elements in these categories were indicated by operating-room nurses to be rarest. Operating-room nurses also reported to have the worst skills and knowledge in the category of teaching/coaching.