RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMPETENCY
ASSESSMENT AND MAINTENANCE
The literature offers a broad perspective on who is responsible for competency assessment and maintenance. Consistent with many other professions, assurance of competence
is the shared responsibility of the profession, individual practitioners, professional organizations, credentialing and certification entities, regulatory agencies, and employers. In
addition to having the responsibility for initial licensure and
initial competency, many authors believe that the state
boards of nursing should also be responsible for continuing competence. They support this position by suggesting
that the hallmark of a self-regulating profession is the expectation that the profession be responsible for shaping
and guiding any process for ensuring nurse competence.
The profession and professional organizations play a part
in competence through credentialing and certification.
Regulatory agencies define minimal standards of competency
to protect the public. The ANA (2008) reinforced individual
RN responsibility for maintaining continuing competence.
Most educators and organizational leaders agree that the
RN is responsible and accountable for maintaining his or
her professional competence. Organizations through their
management staff are responsible for the competent performance of the staff as documented in the performance
evaluation. To provide a complete performance review,
the manager may need to consult with other qualified staff
to ensure an individual staff member has competencybased performance and practices at the professional nursing level. The employer is responsible and accountable to
provide a practice environment conducive to competent
practice. Within this accountability is the critical importance of providing competent individuals to perform the
validation of both psychomotor and behavioral processes
through a structured consistent approach.
Yet, no single evaluation method or tool can guarantee
competence. Competence is situational and dynamic; it is
both an outcome and an ongoing process. Context determines what competencies are necessary. Tying competency
validation outcomes to performance evaluation helps
ensure the individual accountability needed to perform
patient care.
The following conclusions guided the implementation
recommendations. Both the conclusions and recommendations are grouped into five similar categories: responsibility, assessment, selection, validation, and organization
(see Tables 2 and 3).