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BACKGROUND: It is important to map the clinical competence of newly graduated nurses in Nordic countries. The use of a common Nordic instrument could provide insights into nurses' levels of self-assessed clinical competence and perceptions of their need for professional development.

AIM: To translate and culturally adapt the original Norwegian version of the Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale II (PROFFNurse SAS II) into (1) Danish, (2) Finnish and (3) Icelandic versions.

METHOD: The PROFFNurse SAS II was translated and cross-culturally adapted. This translation was inspired by the process used in the Guidelines for Cross-Cultural Adaptation.

RESULT: The translation and cultural adaptation processes employed the required steps and provided specific details. In addition, practical issues encountered during the translation process while translating and adapting instruments that may influence future translations were revealed. This study found that having a professional bilingual/bicultural agency translator was partly problematic in the process of translation and found that it is important to adjust the translations to each country's specific words used in nursing.

CONCLUSION: Translating the PROFFNurse SAS II instrument into all Nordic languages enables us to use the instrument from a Nordic perspective and across various countries. This is important when comparing self-awareness and reflecting on nurses' clinical competencies. Professional development is central to valuing and developing clinical competence and allowing for the discovery of gaps in clinical competence.