The road to competency in healthcare education is fraught with obstacles, yet with thoughtful strategy and dedicated resources, this path leads to skilled, adaptable, and confident healthcare professionals. Education Management Solutions (EMS) helps institutions on their journey with their Competency solution. EMS’ Competency management platform helps learners with clinical skill development, promotes evidence-based practice, and increases the efficiency of educational delivery that aligns with budgetary and resource optimization needs. This competency resource from Education management Solutions will discuss the top 12 things to consider when evaluating a competency solution for healthcare education. Don’t forget to stop by the EMS Booth #400 at IMSH 2025!
Education Management Solutions’ (EMS) Competency Solutions
In health systems, proficiency targets associated with competency levels are designed to flexibly meet both an individual’s role and the organization’s strategic imperatives. For healthcare education, student progression can be meticulously aligned with competency levels to appreciably improve learning outcomes. This underscores the intrinsic value to view competency as a broad, developmental construct that goes beyond mere skills assessment to include a holistic approach to professional growth and organizational alignment.
Register to join us (or watch the recording) for the January 8, 2025, EMS Webinar below:
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Beyond Competency: Incorporating Clinical Simulation into Competency-Based Education to learn more!
Competency should foster a well-rounded, adaptable, and proficient healthcare workforce that can meet individual patient needs, adapt to the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, and contribute to the goals of healthcare organizations. EMS Competency charts educational and professional trajectories that are specific to healthcare, prioritize lifelong learning, and uphold the highest standards of patient care.
When an institution considers the best strategy to use with the adoption of Competency-Based Education (CBE,) there are specific aspects to consider. Does the solution:
1. Empower Healthcare Education with Comprehensive Knowledge: Knowledge encompasses the comprehension of a wide array of subjects. The depth and breadth of knowledge acquired lays the groundwork for all subsequent clinical competencies.
2. Enhance Skill Development in Healthcare: Skill development in healthcare revolves around the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to perform specific tasks proficiently and safely. This includes both technical skills and softer skills, like effective communication with patients and families. Healthcare simulations and clinical practicums are integral components of healthcare education to provide a controlled environment for the learner to refine their skills.
3. Augment Learner’s Abilities: In the healthcare sector, ‘ability’ pertains to both the innate and developed capacities that enable individuals to carry out their roles effectively. This includes cognitive abilities, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, which are crucial for diagnosing conditions and planning patient care; emotional intelligence to aid in empathetic interactions with patients and families; and physical abilities that are necessary to perform procedures or manage the demands of long shifts. Healthcare education programs often incorporate clinical scenario-based learning and case studies to cultivate these abilities to enable students to better analyze complex situations and make informed decisions.
4. Cultivate Appropriate Behavioral Competencies: Behavior in healthcare education refers to the observable responses of individuals in clinical settings, reflective of their professionalism, ethical standards, and personal attitudes. To cultivate appropriate behavioral competencies there must be an instillation of a strong sense of responsibility, patient-centered care, and teamwork from the early stages of training.
5. Assess Skills: The assessment of skills can be pinpointed to a singular focus on a particular skill set without considering broader implications or associated soft skills. In contrast, competency assessment captures a broad-spectrum proficiency that aligns with comprehensive knowledge bases and identifies critical skill gaps.
6. Map Competency: Competency mapping is a strategic process that identifies and defines the skills, knowledge, and behaviors essential for success in specific roles. As an example, in healthcare competency mapping could allow for organizations to establish clear expectations for leadership positions, and ensure that their leadership-focused CBE programs are tailored to build around those precise competencies. In this way, healthcare organizations can create targeted training paths to help future leaders meet the unique demands of their roles and foster continuous growth.
7. Adjust to Self-Paced Learning: CBE is structured around the student’s progression at their own pace. This approach is fundamentally different from the traditional time-bound model. Unfortunately, learners accustomed to structured frameworks may grapple with effective time management. To counter this, institutions should provide sufficient support systems: time management workshops, peer study groups, and access to academic advisors. If educators help guide students to set realistic goals and create personal learning plans, their CBE implementation will produce better outcomes.
8. Assess Diverse Competencies: Competency in healthcare is not just about clinical knowledge. Competency encompasses practical skills, communication, and ethical decision-making. Assessment of these diverse competencies, especially soft skills, can be complex. The utilization of a variety of assessment methods, such as Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), reflective essays, and 360-degree feedback tools provide a wider range of data from which to derive competency.
Integrate Theoretical Knowledge with Clinical Practice: Bridging the gap between theoretical learning and clinical application can overwhelm educators. Students may excel in the classroom but struggle to apply knowledge in real-world scenarios. Incorporation of simulation-based learning and early clinical exposures into the curriculum can help cross that divide and allow students to apply classroom theory in a practical yet controlled environment to build confidence and competence.
Tailor Education to Individual Needs: CBE demands that education be individualized. However, personalized healthcare learning experiences in a field this vast can overwhelm educators. The investment in adaptive educational technology to differentiate learning styles and needs but still offer a ceratin level of standardization is paramount. Additionally, healthcare educators should promote self-reflection to help students identify their own competency gaps and learning preferences.
Ensure Faculty Buy-In and Training: The movement toward a CBE model requires buy-in from all stakeholders, especially faculty who may be rooted in traditional teaching methods. Faculty development programs should emphasize the value of CBE and provide training in the latest educational strategies and technologies. Engagement of faculty in the design of CBE curricula can foster a sense of ownership and ease the transition.
Track Competencies Across the Curriculum: In CBE, the crucial focus must be on each tracking learner’s individual progress meticulously. Without a systematic approach, educators can be challenged to provide timely feedback, identify areas for improvement, or ensure that all necessary competencies are adequately covered throughout the course of study.
EMS’s Competency Solution is the Answer
Robust competency-tracking solutions offer accessible platforms that enable both students and educators to monitor progress in real-time. The integration of this technology allows healthcare institutions to streamline the competency-tracking process and allows easy gap identification in knowledge or skills early on. For students, this translates to a clearer understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement, and allows them to focus their efforts more effectively. For educators, this enables them to provide targeted support and dynamically make adjustments to their curriculum to meet students’ needs.
Education Management Solutions’ (EMS) Competency provides educators with a unique and effective solution that aligns target outcomes across an entire curriculum. With a centralized and secure cloud-based framework, Competency allows administrators to linearly map course objectives, assessment protocols, program outcomes, and accreditation requirements. Additionally, advanced data reporting and analytic features enable educators to track learner performance across curricula. Competency also supports integrated gap analysis tools, making it possible to spot curriculum gaps, identify at-risk learners early on, and ensure students are ready for real-world challenges at graduation.
For more than 30 years, EMS has provided partners with turnkey solutions to host, deliver, track, and measure learner performance and analyze core competencies. Through their three core solutions of Enterprise, Competency, and Training in Motion®, EMS supplies the service and technology to deliver comprehensive simulation management, simplified curriculum assessment and student performance tracking, and high-end mobile simulation training.
Learn More About Education Management Solutions Competency Solution!
