To explore the construction of a quantifiable comprehensive evaluation index system for the core professional capabilities of clinical engineers, a system matching the routine work of tertiary public hospital′s department of biomedical engineering, and supporting the future development of the discipline.

Based on analysis of such factors as hospital development planning, clinical diagnosis and treatment characteristics, and routine work description of the clinical engineering department, as well as literature review and expert consultation, a preliminary evaluation index system was developed for the core professional capabilities of such engineers. Then the Delphi method was applied for two rounds of expert consultation, with experts invited to evaluate the importance of core indexes, while the analytic hierarchy process was used to calculate the weight values of these indexes. Based on the evaluation index system for core professional capabilities of clinical engineers, a survey questionnaire was developed and the score criterion was defined independently, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted from February to April 2023 on clinical engineers of the tertiary public hospitals′ department of biomedical engineering to evaluate their core professional capabilities.

The comprehensive evaluation index system for the core professional capabilities of clinical engineers was composed of 4 first-level indexes and 14 second-level indexes. The weights for the 4 first-level indexes, namely job responsibilities, service abilities, extension abilities, and communication abilities were 0.200, 0.350, 0.250, and 0.200, respectively. Among the 14 second-level indexes, the weights of equipment management ability, engineering technology transformation ability, scientific research ability, personnel quality, and medical communication ability ranked top five, weighting 0.097, 0.091, 0.089, 0.088, and 0.087, respectively. A total of 106 clinical engineers were selected for a questionnaire survey, and the self-scoring found 6 of them as " excellent", 36 as " good", 38 as " moderate", and 26 as " poor" in terms of core professional capabilities.

The evaluation index system for the core professional capabilities of clinical engineers in this study proves rational and practical, and can provide reference for the core professional competence evaluation, talent cultivation, and clinical engineering discipline of these professionals.

Personnel administration, hospital; Clinical engineering; Professional capabilities; Tertiary public hospital; Evaluation index system