Competency Based Education [Shikha]

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COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION

Introduction Competency Based Education focuses on outcomes of learning. A competence is the ability of the learner to put skills and knowledge into action. (Humphrey 1992). Competencies describe the student‟s ability to apply basic & other skills in situations that are commonly encountered in everyday life. The word competent is derived from Latin and means having essential qualities and abilities to function in specific ways.

Competency-based education is a framework for designing and implementing education that focuses on the desired performance characteristics of health care professionals. Although this has always been the implicit goal of more traditional educational frameworks, CBE makes this explicit by establishing observable and measureable metrics that learners are expected to accomplish.

Definition of Competency Based Education (CBE)

CBE addresses what the learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about. „It refers to an educational movement that advocates defining educational goals in terms of precise measurable descriptions of knowledge, skills, and behaviors students should possess at the end of a course of study” (Richard.S and Rogers).

Epstein and Hundert established a commonly cited definition of competency in health care: “Competency is the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values, and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of the individual and the community being served.”

Characteristics of CBE

1. Specific, measurable competency statements

2. Content based on learner goals (outcomes/competencies) 3. Learner continues in program until demonstrating mastery 4. Use a variety of instructional techniques and group activities 5. Focus on what the learner needs to learn, which is the application of basic skills in a life skills context. 6. Use texts, media, and real life materials geared to targeted competencies 7. Provide learners with immediate feedback on assessment performance 8. Pace instruction to learner needs 9. Have learner demonstrate mastery of specified competency statements

Significance of CBE

1. Time based educational system used in most Universities / Schools are not appropriate when conducting training. 2. Passing all written examination is not a basis for skill assessment 3. Nursing is a skill oriented profession with sound scientific background 4. Traditional education is mainly teacher centered & based on unit of time progression

Competency skills

1. Basic skills (reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, and listening); 2. Thinking skills (thinking creatively, decision making, problem solving); 3. Personal qualities (individual responsibility, self-esteem, social skills, managing self, and integrity) (Voorhees, 2001); 4. Four base competencies, determined by Evers, Rush and Berdrow (1998) (managing self, communicating organizing innovation, and managing change).

Elements of competency

Nagelsmith (1995) describes the basis of professional competence as a set of essential and relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes. There are different elements needed to achieve competency:

1. Determination of knowledge, skills, and abilities required for graduates of nursing education programs, based on standards and legal requirements. 2. Relevance to current practice. 3. Registration and licensing examinations by boards of nursing. 4. Board of nursing continuing education requirements for licensing. 5. Employer monitoring of required staff development modules, completion of courses, demonstrations, and examinations.

6. Certification requirements by professional nursing organizations. 7. Standards and accreditation for nursing practice guidelines.

Benefits of CBE (Norton1987)

1. Participants will achieve competencies required in the performance of their jobs. 2. Participants build confidence as they succeed in mastering specific competencies. 3. Participants receive a transcript or list of the competencies they have achieved. 4. Training time is used more efficiently & effectively as the trainer is a facilitator of learning as opposed to a provider of information. 5. More training time is devoted to working with participants individually or in small groups as opposed to presenting lectures. 6. More training time is devoted to evaluating each participant‟s ability to perform essential job skills Disadvantages of Competency Based Nursing Education While there are those who support the competency-based education for nursing professionals, there are also those who do not. The critics of this approach contend that this kind of an education is task-based and largely reductionist. With such an education, professionals behave more mechanically in terms of discrete behaviors. The underlying theoretical attributes of nursing education are also ignored in such a competency-based education.

Relevance of Competency Based Education for Nursing There are several reasons why competency-based education for nursing is relevant in today‟s world. The key issue here is that such an education can provide the basis for setting standards. The health care professionals also can assist the students by monitoring their performance as they study through their educational programs. The respective roles of the nursing students also get clarified while they are still studying. Pitfalls Common pitfalls to the establishment of CBE are as follows: (1) They fail to directly address the health needs of the community, (2) Competencies are inadequately defined or to broad to be useful, (3) A lack of accommodation in the curriculum for the flexibility in learning rates (4) The lack of assessment methods to determine when competency has been achieved.

Research articles 1) Using a competency based approach in nurse education. Abstract This article examines the development of the competency based approach to assessment in practice within pre-registration nursing. An historical perspective to the approach is given, including brief descriptions of the different models that have been used in nurse training and how these relate to the current system of nurse education. The approach is examined in relation to government, professional and educational requirements. Implications for practice are discussed, taking into consideration staffing levels, training and availability of mentors and assessors, and the impact these have on nurse training.

2) Some important limitations of competency-based education with respect to nurse education: An Australian Perspective Abstract Issues concerning competency-based education (CBE) have recently promoted much discussion and debate throughout most developed countries. This paper provides an Australian perspective and adds to the wider debate about CBE by deliberating on the part

professional competency standards should play in a university curriculum, specifically the undergraduate nurse education curriculum. A position is developed by addressing the following thesis statement: the competency-based approach to nursing education is an indisputable reality but nursing competencies must not be allowed to control the curriculum. Some background material is briefly reviewed in order to situate CBE, nurse education, and nursing competencies in their Australian economic and socio-political context. The position is then explicated through an examination of some intersections between nursing competencies and aspects of undergraduate nurse curriculum making.

Reference

1. Competency-Based Nursing Education | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6546485_competency_based-nursingeducation.html#ixzz218C7ZAw6 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15853055 3. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5551

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