Listening to our Stakeholders - Health Workforce Australia

44 Listening to our Stakeholders:
Analysis of interviews regarding competency-based education and training & competency-based career frameworks.
Annex 6 Draft Value Statement: Competence, Competency &
Frameworks - Advancing the Discussion
Understanding the Terms
Multiple definitions exist with little consensus and considerable controversy. Opportunity exists
for HWA to take the lead and develop a set of shared definitions with common agreement across
the health workforce. Definitions of relevance to health workforce settings include:
Competence: A generic term referring to a person’s overall capacity to perform a given role,
including not only performance but capability. It involves both observable and unobservable
attributes such as attitudes, values, and judgemental ability (Victoria Government Department of
Human Services, 2009)
Competency: The ability to consistently perform work activities to agreed standards over a range
of contexts and conditions (Knight & Nestor, 2000; Ridoutt, Dutneall, Hummel, & Smith, 2002)
Competency in the clinical setting: The ability to handle a complex professional task by
integrating the relevant cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills (Carter & Jackson, 2009)
Competency-based education and training frameworks: Frameworks which are constructed
to specify competencies relevant for registration, assessment of practice and curriculum design,
and, education and training. UQ Research team (Brownie, Thomas, & Bahnisch, 2011)
Is there a problem to be solved?
Significant problems exist that are common across westernised countries and are increasingly
being tackled by the development of cross professional, interprofessional and cross sectoral
competency frameworks. Examples include the CanMEDS framework and the European Tuning
Project (Jason R. Frank & Danoff, 2007; Tuning Educational Structures in Europe, 2011). Current
problems within the Australian context include:
Everyone is developing frameworks with little if any alignment and increasing disparity
Frequently, frameworks are not aligned with the recently revised Australian Qualifications
Framework. This exacerbates problems related to:
Variable standards/levels of competency within health qualifications & professions
Difficult transition between the VET and higher education sectors
Difficulties in recognition of prior learning for health workers wishing to build on their careers,
change careers of migrate into Australia
Increasing professional demarcation and protection of professionally siloed roles
Difficulties for health employers wishing to increase workforce flexibility
Value Proposition: What are the benefits?
Provision of common platforms for learning along with clear articulation pathways for those
seeking recognition of prior learning is of particular benefit in supporting health workforce
developments (Duckett, 2005; Ellis, et al., 2006). Common frameworks inclusive of these features
are of value to most groups within the health community (Wright, et al., 2008), including: