Core Competencies Research Articles

A core competency evaluation index system for the graded use of clinical nurse specialists: A Delphi study.

To describe a grading system that can be used to evaluate core competency of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) at different levels. Evaluate core competence of CNSs at different levels reflects the quality of nursing and the development of the nursing profession. This research employed the Delphi method. The STROBE checklist for observational cross-sectional studies was followed to report this research study. This study consisted of two main phases: a literature review and semistructured interviews. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 healthcare experts and two patients. Two rounds of questionnaire surveys were administered to 21 nursing experts using the Delphi method. The CNSs were classified as primary, intermediate or advanced based on their years of work, professional titles and educational qualifications. The graded competency evaluation system consisted of five first-level indicators (clinical practice, consulting guidance and teaching, scientific research innovation, management and discipline development, and ethical decision-making), 15 second level indicators, and 40 third-level indicators. The authority coefficients (Cr) of the experts were .865 and .901. The Kendall's concordance coefficients of the three-level indicators were .417, .289 and .316 for primary CNSs; .384, .294 and .337 for intermediate CNSs; and .489, .289 and .239 for advanced CNSs. The graded use evaluation system in clinical practice initially involves a comprehensive evaluation of the core abilities of CNSs. This is a tool for cultivating and grading the abilities of specialised nurses that can promote a practical upwards spiral. The evaluation system can promote the scientific management and continuous improvement of CNSs in clinical nursing and can serve as a practical and objective reference for the effective management and development of CNSs. Patients participated in the data collection process, during which they shared their health-seeking experience with our research team.

Core Competencies of an Anti-racist Physician: Elective Course for Undergraduate Medical Students

Core Competencies of an Anti-racist Physician: Elective Course for Undergraduate Medical Students

Research on Cultivating Critical Thinking in High School English Reading Teaching

With a focus on fostering core competencies, nurturing students’ critical thinking has emerged as a crucial facet of English reading instruction. However, current English reading instruction in high schools tends to neglect the cultivation of critical thinking, leading to a widespread phenomenon of “absence of speculation” in teaching. Therefore, this study aims to explore effective strategies, including designing teaching objectives for critical thinking, utilizing visual aids, introducing cognitive level questioning, and implementing embedded evaluation for cultivating critical thinking in high school English reading instruction. The findings of the study provide insights for constructing a coherent framework for critical thinking teaching.

Gender inclusion: The practices of organizational development and human resource management

This study explores gender inclusion via practices of organizational development and human resource management from general managers in five-star hotels based on the gap between current practices, expectations, and typical general managers' characteristics. The study states the related theories of organizational culture, corporate policies, perceived organizational support, core competencies, and gender perceptions. A mixed method was applied in three stages. Quantitative research was conducted with 400 executive staff using 25 structured questionnaires via a Likert scale: Needs Assessment. The second stage is qualitative research conducted using five in-depth interview questions with 22 interviews conducted by the general manager. Interview transcripts collected the data, contents analysis inter-coding and triangulation of themes development. The last stage is the development of a model and guidelines, which are conducted by juxtaposing quantitative and qualitative data and expert reviews. The study discusses the implications for the literature and practice.

Measuring Communication and Collaboration Skills in Sciences of Secondary School Students in New General Curriculum: A Case of Vietnam

Communication and collaboration are important skills for students in the 21st century. In order to develop these skills, students will interact with others in specific situations, where they will need to face a situation directly. In Vietnam, the new general education curriculum was issued by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2018. This curriculum has been developed using competency-based approach. Communication and collaboration are identified as core competencies in this curriculum, and these competencies have been proposed with detail components and criteria for students at the final stage of each education levels (e.g., primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education). However, one of the practical problems teachers and students facing is that these criteria are too general. Therefore, it is difficult for teachers and teachers to monitor and assess these competencies in specific subjects. The purpose of the present research is to propose a detailed assessment framework and to validate an instrument for assessing communication and collaboration competencies in the Science subject based on general criteria of these competencies in the general education curriculum in Vietnam. The present research used Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to analyse the research data. The results show that there are three components to measure communication and collaboration competencies with 19 out of 20 indicators having good factor loadings. Reliability analysis for each factor using Cronbach’s alpha shows that each factor has internal consistency, with values ranging from .704 to .861.

Clear your plate. What practice owners can outsource

If you’re a practice owner or a practice manager, you’re prob­ably working too much. You need to find ways to be more pur­poseful and less busy, increasing your time, sanity and cash flow. Outsourcing can be a valuable tool to help you scale your business and focus on your core competencies. There are things that only you can do as a practice owner or a manager, but there are so many other things that you are doing that can be out­sourced. You can outsource things externally, internally or to your family and friends. Outsourcing a task takes planning and time so do it before you need to, or it will be difficult to onboard the new person well.

Country typology reflecting (sub)national conditions for housing policy implementation

The paper demonstrates the importance of subnational data on housing to be systematically reported and added to country typologies. We asked which national and local level characteristics of housing regimes can serve as benchmarks for reasonable country groupings. The aim of this paper is to (1) develop a methodological tool enabling the comparison of conditions for housing policy implementation on national and subnational levels and (2) identify the group of countries where conditions for housing policy implementation on national and subnational levels tend to be comparable. This country classification can be used as a practical instrument for comparative analyses and policy learning. As a conceptual framework, we used the international comparative Housing research 2.0 launched by Hoekstra in 2020. For our analysis, we selected 15 basic factors that were tested in 24 European countries. We have identified three key factors having an impact on housing policy implementation: decentralisation level in housing, local budget housing expenditure and the information on which governance level has core competencies within housing. The numeric database has been run through a k-means cluster analysis. Five distinct types of countries with similarities in conditions for housing policy implementation on national and subnational level have been identified and described.

Core competencies in palliative care among oncology nurses: An observational study

BACKGROUND: Palliative care requires a collaborative approach from a multidisciplinary team, incorporating nurses with ethical, clinical, communicative-relational, psychosocial, and teamwork skills. However, many professionals feel unprepared to face end-of-life challenges, highlighting a lack of skills, especially regarding psychosocial and spiritual aspects. AIM: The purpose of this study is to explore nurses' self-perception of competencies in palliative care. METHODS: A single-center descriptive observational study was conducted among palliative and non-palliative care nurses at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (INT), using the short Italian version of the Professional Competence Scale (PCSQ). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used along with multivariate ANOVA for statistical analysis. RESULTS: 122 nurses participated (response rate: 52%), predominantly women (78%), aged 25-34 (50%), with a degree (46%) and over 10 years of experience (41%). The majority had no experience (71%) in palliative care, while 16% were currently working in this field. Statistical analysis revealed no significant correlations between educational level and responses. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that experience in palliative care significantly influenced self-assessment scores, such as in activating non-pharmacological management strategies (p=0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses perceive high competence in ethical and clinical decision-making in palliative care, influenced more by experience than by training. Addressing patients' subjective needs and using non-pharmacological interventions remain a challenge for nurses not working in palliative care settings.

SUBSTANTIATION OF THE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM «GLOBAL HEALTH» AS A COMPONENT OF THE TRAINING OF PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALISTS

The aim: to develop a modern certification program "Global Health" for the continuous professional development of public health professionals. Materials and methods. The study employed bibliosemantic, informational-analytical, medical-statistical, sociological methods, and content analysis method. The research program included an analysis of the main competencies of public health professionals, as defined by the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and the higher education standard for specialty 229 "Public Health" for the second (master's) level of higher education; analysis of existing certification programs on global health; conducting sociological surveys of public health professionals regarding priority topics and preferred learning methods. The research was based on normative documents, electronic resources, and the results of sociological research. Statistical processing and mathematical analysis of materials were conducted using statistical analysis methods. Results. It was established that global health issues are significant in shaping the professional competencies of public health professionals, considering the requirements of the higher education standard for specialty 229 "Public Health" for the second (master's) level of higher education and those, defined by the European List of Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals ASPHER. The study of these issues was identified as important for continuous professional development based on sociological surveys of disease control and prevention center employees (38.4 out of 100 respondents). Among various forms of education, webinars (62.2±3.8 out of 100 respondents) and online learning (60.4±3.8) are most in demand. Analysis of the obtained data led to the justification of the "Global Health" certification program. In the developed "Global Health" certification program, 26.7% of the workload corresponds to lectures, 33.3% to practical classes, and 40% to preparatory work. Structurally, it covers 2 modules and 8 topics on current issues of the impact of globalization on health and analysis of global health indicators. Conclusions. The "Global Health" certification program meets the requirements of normative documents, considers contemporary challenges and consequences of globalization on health, highlights global health trends, and its topics are in demand among disease control and prevention center professionals.

Evolutionary game analysis on cross-border cooperative R&D of intelligent new energy vehicle industry

PurposeIntelligent new energy vehicles (INEVs) are becoming the competitive hotspot for the automobile industry. The major purpose of this study is to determine how to increase innovation efficiency through knowledge sharing and technology spill between new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises and technology enterprises. This will help to improve the core competence of the automobile industry in China. Also, it serves as a guide for the growth of other strategic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors construct a tripartite evolutionary game model to study the cross-border cooperative innovation problem. Firstly, the payment matrix of NEV enterprise, technology enterprise and government is established, and the expected revenue of each participant is determined. Then, the replication dynamic equations and evolutionary stability strategies are analyzed. Finally, the theoretical research is validated through numerical simulation.FindingsResults showed that: (1) An optimal range of revenue distribution coefficient exists in the cross-border cooperation. (2) Factors like research and development (R&D) success rate, subsidies, resource and technology complementarity, and vehicles intelligence positively influence the evolution towards cooperative strategies. (3) Factors like technology spillover risk cost inhibit the evolution towards cooperative strategies. To be specific, when the technology spillover risk cost is greater than 2.5, two enterprises are inclined to choose independent R&D, and the government chooses to provide subsidy.Research limitations/implicationsThe research perspective and theoretical analysis are helpful to further explore the cross-border cooperation of the intelligent automobile industry. The findings suggest that the government can optimize the subsidy policy according to the R&D capability and resource allocation of automobile industry. Moreover, measures are needed to reduce the risk of technology spillovers to encourage enterprise to collaborate and innovate. The results can provide reference for enterprises’ strategic choice and government’s policy making.Originality/valueThe INEV industry has become an important development direction of the global automobile industry. However, there is limited research on cross-border cooperation of INEV industry. Hence, authors construct a tripartite evolutionary game model involving NEV enterprise, technology enterprise and the government, and explore the relationship of cooperation and competition among players in the INEV industry, which provides a new perspective for the development of the INEV industry.

Puppetry-Based Literacy as a Means of Early Childhood Character Education

This service aims to introduce wayang culture and develop children's character education with the content of core competencies in spiritual attitudes, core competencies in social attitudes, core competencies in knowledge, and core competencies in skills by utilizing educational learning media. The subjects in this research were PAUD Mutiara Bunda and PAUD Kenanga, Pisang Candi, Sukun, Malang City. The results of this service show that the learning method through wayang literacy and local wisdom for early childhood has succeeded in becoming a means for teachers to introduce character-based local culture to early childhood

Developing IPEC Competencies for an Evolving Professional Landscape: Q&A with Jeffery Stewart, DDS

Jeffery Stewart, DDS, MS, a consultant to the American Dental Education Association, met with Meg Zomorodi, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, of UNC-Chapel Hill, to discuss the latest revisions to the IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice. Released in November 2023, these updated competencies build on previous versions from 2011 and 2016 to incorporate the perspectives of seven new IPEC member organizations and reflect the continuously evolving research, policy, education, and practice landscape.

New IPEC Competencies, the State of the Science, and a Focus on Equity

From the value of team-based patient care to the focus on the learner, the 2023 Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies include a more succinct approach to collaborative care. We review the changes and note their potential impacts on collaborative practice.

Concept-based Extension of SKOS Defense Controlled Vocabulary: Techniques and Implications

A controlled vocabulary is a set of terms that are utilized to represent knowledge in a domain. In the domain of defense, the use of terms such as “command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR)”, “armored personnel carriers (APC)”, or “biological and bioinspired structures for multispectral surveillance” denote the core competencies of domain experts and the depth of diverse knowledge. This paper describes the second phase of the pilot project to create a defense-related controlled vocabulary with a focus on the Russo-Ukraine conflict. Applications for data annotation, SKOS hierarchical vocabulary development, and vocabulary quality analysis are used to identify terms in text, express identified terms in military press releases as SKOS vocabulary, and assess its structure. The preliminary vocabulary is extended by 173 concepts. The quality of the vocabulary is validated against a SKOS checker of twenty-four criteria.

Associations of Internal Medicine Residency Milestone Ratings and Certification Examination Scores With Patient Outcomes

Despite its importance to medical education and competency assessment for internal medicine trainees, evidence about the relationship between physicians' milestone residency ratings or the American Board of Internal Medicine's initial certification examination and their hospitalized patients' outcomes is sparse. To examine the association between physicians' milestone ratings and certification examination scores and hospital outcomes for their patients. Retrospective cohort analyses of 6898 hospitalists completing training in 2016 to 2018 and caring for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries during hospitalizations in 2017 to 2019 at US hospitals. Primary outcome measures included 7-day mortality and readmission rates. Thirty-day mortality and readmission rates, length of stay, and subspecialist consultation frequency were also assessed. Analyses accounted for hospital fixed effects and adjusted for patient characteristics, physician years of experience, and year. Certification examination score quartile and milestone ratings, including an overall core competency rating measure equaling the mean of the end of residency milestone subcompetency ratings categorized as low, medium, or high, and a knowledge core competency measure categorized similarly. Among 455 120 hospitalizations, median patient age was 79 years (IQR, 73-86 years), 56.5% of patients were female, 1.9% were Asian, 9.8% were Black, 4.6% were Hispanic, and 81.9% were White. The 7-day mortality and readmission rates were 3.5% (95% CI, 3.4%-3.6%) and 5.6% (95% CI, 5.5%-5.6%), respectively, and were 8.8% (95% CI, 8.7%-8.9%) and 16.6% (95% CI, 16.5%-16.7%) for mortality and readmission at 30 days. Mean length of stay and number of specialty consultations were 3.6 days (95% CI, 3.6-3.6 days) and 1.01 (95% CI, 1.00-1.03), respectively. A high vs low overall or knowledge milestone core competency rating was associated with none of the outcome measures assessed. For example, a high vs low overall core competency rating was associated with a nonsignificant 2.7% increase in 7-day mortality rates (95% CI, -5.2% to 10.6%; P = .51). In contrast, top vs bottom examination score quartile was associated with a significant 8.0% reduction in 7-day mortality rates (95% CI, -13.0% to -3.1%; P = .002) and a 9.3% reduction in 7-day readmission rates (95% CI, -13.0% to -5.7%; P < .001). For 30-day mortality, this association was -3.5% (95% CI, -6.7% to -0.4%; P = .03). Top vs bottom examination score quartile was associated with 2.4% more consultations (95% CI, 0.8%-3.9%; P < .003) but was not associated with length of stay or 30-day readmission rates. Among newly trained hospitalists, certification examination score, but not residency milestone ratings, was associated with improved outcomes among hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries.

Analysis of the Chain-Mediated Effects of Narrative Care Skills and Evidence-Based Nursing Competencies between Clinical Nurse Core Competencies and Sense of Career Benefit

Background: To understand the current status of clinical nurses' narrative care skills and evidence-based nursing competence, and to explore their chain-mediated roles between nurses' core competence and sense of career benefit, so as to provide references for improving nurses' sense of career benefit and positively developing nursing teams. Methods: A general information questionnaire, narrative competence scale for healthcare professionals, evidence-based nursing competency scale, registered nurse core competency scale, and nurses' sense of career benefit questionnaire were used to survey 716 nurses, and the chain mediation model was constructed and tested. Results: The total evidence-based nursing competency score of clinical nurses was (65.53±9.17), which was at a moderate level. The total score of narrative care skills (113.57±18.52), the total score of nurses' core competence (179.15±33.37), and the total score of nurses' sense of career benefit (109.37±20.81) were in the middle level; narrative care skills and evidence-based nursing competence acted as chain mediators between nurses' core competence and their sense of career benefit, and the mediation effects were respectively 0.006, 0.014. Conclusion: Narrative care skills and evidence-based nursing competency were at intermediate level, and the chain mediating effect of narrative care skills and evidence-based nursing competency indirectly predicted nurses' sense of professional benefit. It is suggested that nursing leaders can carry out lectures and training courses to improve nurses' narrative care skills and evidence-based nursing competence, to promote nurses' sense of career identity and to create a good nurse-patient relationship, which will be conducive to the positive development of the nursing team in the modern healthcare environment.

Survey of Teachers’ Perception of Future School Learning Space

The cultivation of students’ core competencies is a worldwide issue. Transforming the learning environment to promote innovative pedagogy has become a trend. As a critical role in students’ cultivation, teachers’ perception of learning space has the direct effect on learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate the teachers’ perception of the new learning space. A teacher’s perception of future school learning space scale is developed to collect the data, which includes 8 subscales and 35 items, 355 teachers participated in the study. Result of Descriptive statistics and Independent-samples t-tests indicated that: (a) Future School Learning Space Scale is reliable and effective; (b) teachers’ perception of Comfortability of learning space, Constructive Learning, Differentiation Learning are relative higher, Cloud Technology and Connectivity are both lower; (c) Teachers in different group, such as gender, teaching experience and type of school have significant difference in their perception of future learning space. Implications for Chinese future learning space design and construction have discussed.

Proposed Framework for Developing and Evaluating Total Worker Health® Education and Training Programs.

Propose a framework for developing and evaluating Total Worker Health® education and training efforts by implementing institutions. Review of Total Worker Health (TWH) information from symposia, workshops, academic offerings, and publications, along with a review of education and training development and evaluation resources applicable across various disciplines. Examples of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for each TWH core competency, and a framework for developing and evaluating a TWH competency-based education or training program. The proposed set of KSAs and framework for developing and evaluating TWH education or training programs may inform future pilot testing of KSAs and framework by implementing institutions and help to standardize practices across the discipline. Academic, business, community, labor, and government stakeholders are encouraged to provide further input to assist in its maturation and uptake.

School of Nursing Climate Commitment: Nursing Faculty Bring Climate to the Classroom

In 2021, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) added “the impact of climate change on environmental and population health” into The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Presently, little guidance exists for nursing faculty new to climate education. The year prior, the Nurses Climate Challenge (NCC)—a campaign to educate 50,000 health professionals about health impacts of climate change—launched the School of Nursing Commitment through a series of focus groups and collaborative content development. With an aim of increasing access to knowledge and tools to support education about the health impacts of climate change, the NCC Commitment partners with nursing schools and provides a community of practice. Partner schools use NCC resources in courses and report the number of students educated. Within three years, 61 nursing schools in 30 states joined the Commitment. Participants included academic health centers, research institutions, multi-state schools, and small private colleges, and programs ranged from AD to PhD. Faculty (1) integrated resources into didactic and clinical settings, such as population or organ-system content, leadership, and policy; and (2) used resources to support assignments. In four years, faculty reported educating over 37,700 students, using NCC resources in 439 educational sessions. The Commitment may be valuable for faculty fulfilling AACN Essentials by bringing climate change to the classroom, community, and bedside. Furthermore, the Commitment may be a replicable model for health professional education and inspiring action on climate change.

Roadmap for integrating the AACN essentials with perioperative nursing

Faculty members teaching in pre-licensure nursing programs are entrusted with revising nursing education to meet the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Colleges of nursing faculty experience difficulty establishing enough clinical sites as healthcare facilities continue to overcome staffing challenges since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perioperative nursing is an underutilized area despite the potential for students to attain valuable nursing competencies and experiences in perioperative areas. An opportunity exists for faculty, regardless of having perioperative nursing experience or not, to use perioperative environments for clinical experiences in didactic and simulation courses. Our aim is to provide a roadmap for nursing faculty to include perioperative nursing in the pre-licensure nursing curriculum. Perioperative education exemplars aligned with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education domains are included for adoption in any college of nursing.