How to Approach Competency-Based Assessment in Simulation Across Advanced Practice Nursing Specialties

Abstract : Competency-based education is one of the core foundations of professional nursing education established by the AACN (AACN, 2019). During the transition to competency-based education, researchers have worked to develop consensus for nationally recognized competencies for entry to practice nurses utilizing validated competency-assessment methods. However, there remains a gap in generalizable knowledge of educators related to competency-based assessment (CBA) in advanced practice nursing (APRN) specialties.

The core principles of CBA are delineated in the 2023 AACN Essentials (AACN, 2023). Educators are tasked with interpretation and application of this framework to assess outcomes and are seeking validated tools for implementing CBA in simulation education. Although each APRN group designates and assesses individual core competencies specific to their specialty area, the methods for evaluating the competency assessments remain the same. APRN expert educators use the Delphi approach to produce consensus on competencies (Chan et al., 2020), and assess the validity of individual CBA tools using Kane’s Method (Sheppard et al., 2023) or Messick’s Framework (Blanie et al., 2020).

CBA in simulation can be resource intensive, and considerations include minimum number of scenarios and faculty assessors (Fleming et al., 2019). Evaluation of competency may take the form of checklists, rating scales, or data analysis (Sawyer and Gray, 2023). APRN educators can understand and utilize CBA in simulation by modeling the INACSL Standards of Best Practice in Simulation (Watts et al., 2021). This panel presentation will model the collaborative nature of innovation and growth through mentorship of APRN educators.