Connecting the Dots: Nurse Practitioner Core Competency Skill Acquisition in University FNP Students: A Multidimensional Approach to Assessment

Nurse practitioner education continues to advance in response to meeting the health care needs across populations. The AACN in its landmark recommendation (2006) calls for transition to the doctor of nursing practice for entry into advanced practice nursing by 2015 to meet these needs. Correspondingly, standardization across the curriculum for nurse practitioner education has been introduced through the Consensus Model (2008). The goal of this initiative is to move to full scope of practice for NPs. The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, building on its past work, has developed nurse practitioner core competencies (2011). These nine core competencies are essential behaviors that students are expected to demonstrate at the completion of their program, regardless of the population focus of their program. Further, NONPF recognizes that the NP students’ ability to demonstrate NP competencies, both the core competencies which are foundational to any NP practice, and the population focus have greater value than the number of clinical hours the student completes (NONPF, 2008 b).

This education evaluation project will allow us to use a multidimensional assessment process to assess FNP students in their nurse practitioner core competency skill acquisition though teacher lead simulation.  Within the overall project multiple dimensions of the NP core competencies will be assessed through the clinical simulation scenarios. Immediately following the clinical simulation scenarios students will complete several instruments to help assess skill acquisition in dimensions of the NP core competencies. As part of this overall project the team will develop of a new NP Core Competency Self Efficacy Tool, and a qualitative debriefing inventory. Additional critical dimensions of NP core competencies to be assessed thought the clinical simulation itself or additional tools to be completed immediately following the simulation include: leadership practices (as measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory;  the student simulation experiences as they progress through the clinical portion of the program (with the use of the qualitative debriefing inventory) which will contribute to content validity of the new NP Core Competency Self Efficacy Tool. Finally, this presentation will also report on lessons learned and preliminary outcomes of the study.