Competency-Based Nurse Education: An Overview for the Preceptor

Many health care disciplines, including nursing, are moving to competency-based curriculum designs for preparing their future professions. Moving from content-based to competency-based infers a shift from a focus on teaching and imparting faculty or preceptor knowledge to a focus on students and outcomes of their learning. Competency-based education frameworks are becoming a standard for most health care disciplines, including, but not limited to, medicine, physical therapy, speech therapy, dentistry, and pharmacy. The shift from content-focused curriculum to competency-based curriculum is also gaining greater attention in nursing programs as definition of competencies plays a key role in the conceptualization and development of a professional practice and how it is viewed, legislated, and operationalized. The need for “competence” among health professionals began in the 1970s in order to address public health safety and needs to assure and prove a health care workforce that is equipped to handle population needs in the context of practice settings.2 Out of the need for defined competence evolved program accreditation refinements, national certification requirements, and institutional skills verification for health care professions. A competency is an explicitly designed statement that encompasses a single or set of measurable or observable performances. Preceptors are key to the success of student learning in competency-based frameworks. This presentation orients the preceptor to the drivers of a competency-based curriculum and provides tips for preceptor success as a partner in educating nursing students within programs that have adopted a competency-based approach. This presentation will also provide tips to educators as well as students for academic success in the environment of competency-based learning. The presentation will give an overview of success strategies for preceptors in a competency-based curricula A preceptor checklist for success and well as preceptor resources will also be discussed. The paradigm shift to competency-based education approaches has been widely accepted and has many benefits. It includes greater learner-centeredness and promotes clear student and preceptor understanding of expecta- tions for clinical performance and ultimately program success.