Competency-based evaluation: Collaboration and consistency from academia to practice

Abstract

Competency-based evaluation is not a new concept in nursing education. The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (AACN Essentials), published in 2021, and the NONPF Nurse practitioner Role Core Competencies (2022) have provided us with the most recent roadmap for curriculum development and student evaluation. Using these two national guidelines and the Standards for Quality Nurse practitioner Education (2022), we examined ways to unify curriculum and competency in clinical practice. Through a review of the available literature, the lack of standardization in evaluating competency in clinical practice was evident. A framework for evaluation was developed including concepts from other health care discipline competency models. This article presents the resulting evaluation of a tool across academia and practice. Clinical preceptors are an extension of the faculty and play a significant role in developing practice competencies in advanced practice nursing students. Providing preceptors with a comprehensive framework we derived from the already existing PRIME model, and which we use with simulated patients, allows for the evaluation of clinical competencies in a variety of clinical settings. Consistency of evaluation across settings assures the attainment of the competencies necessary to perform safely and effectively in the practice environment.