title: Continuing competency: what's ahead?
abstract: State boards of nursing, national nursing certification organizations, and employers have made a concerted effort to identify a means to assess continuing competency of nurses. In the past decade, there has been a heightened focus on patient safety initiatives, the need for greater transparency in the regulatory process, and consumer demand for development of methods to determine the ongoing qualifications of healthcare professionals. This article will discuss the public policy origins of the continuing competency issue, the potential complications of implementation, identification of some current organizational efforts, and what future implications the issue of continuing competency holds for the healthcare community, nursing profession, and the individual nurse.
authors.affiliation: National Certification Corporation for Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing Specialties, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. bburns@nccnet.org
authors.forename: Betty
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Burns
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005544:Forecasting; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D008008:Licensure, Nursing; D037141:Mandatory Programs; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care; D011640:Public Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D017751:Safety Management; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012956:Societies, Nursing; D013192:Staff Development / Q000458:organization & administration; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States