Competency-Based Nursing Education - Springer Publishing

4 Competency-Based Nursing Education
The following are examples of initiatives that drew attention to
CBE and provided a foundation for implementation:
1. The creation of the National Skills Standard Board in the United
States to develop a national system of skills standards (Voorhees,
2001).
2. The Dearing Report (1997) addressed the issues of lifelong learning
and portability of skills in the United Kingdom.
3. In Australia, competencies and skills standards are part of subuniversity
programs (Faris, 1995).
4. The United States has adopted competency-based approaches in
K–12 education.
5. Kerka (1998) observed that competency standards are related
to meeting global competition and accountability. Such initiatives
are seen in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the
United States.
6. Employers support and require certifications related to specific
jobs.
A challenge in beginning CBE efforts was to conceptualize and define
what competency means and then translate it into useful and meaningful
language.
CONCEPTUALIZING COMPETENCE
It is valuable to realize that there are different approaches to conceptualizing
competence. This is important as institutions start to implement
CBE curricula because the mission, philosophy, and goals of the entities
need to be met. Gonczi (1994) described three ways of conceptualizing
competence:
1. A behaviorist or task-specific approach that is assessed by observation
or performance for evidence.
2. An attribute or generic-skills approach and general attributes
that are crucial to effective performance, based on general competences
already learned.
3. An integrated or task–attribute approach.