University of Texas Arlington, Competency-Focused Approach to Clinical Experiences: Purpose, Design, and Implementation

Abstract

PURPOSE: The National League for Nursing announced there is enough evidence for replacing up to 50% of clinical hours with high fidelity simulation in pre-licensure nursing programs. Defining competence has not been reached to an accepted standard. This research study was designed to increased simulation hours embedded in pre-licensure nursing courses and to clearly defining competency. METHODS: This is a multi-site randomized, controlled competency-focused approach to clinical experiences (C-FACE) research study. The C-FACE study defined desired clinical competencies in a joint process with equal representation of employers and educators. The Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument measures the competencies of control group and two intervention groups. Intervention Group A’s competencies are measured after formative simulations. Group B’s competencies are measured after adding traditional clinical experiences following formative simulations. FINDINGS: Anecdotal information indicates that students are more confident when they go to their clinicals and faculty believes the benefits of the standardized formative simulations are so noticeable that they intend to implement them every semester. At the time of this abstract submission, the research team has collected information on over 3,000 days of clinical rotations from over 500 students. Approximately 1,000 clinical competency evaluations using the Creighton instrument have been performed. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Subjective feedback about the implementation of formative and summative standardized scenarios reveal positive experiences from the both faculty and students. DISCUSSION: A summary of the next research steps will be reviewed, followed by a discussion on how other healthcare educational programs can adopt similar strategies to define competencies.