Educators often lead this process without active management involvement. In fact, depending on the organization, competency validation may be completed only in the classroom
with no formalized follow-up in the clinical setting. The
staff member is usually coached through the assessment
process using validation processes that are not standardized, resulting in each nurse being validated as competent
through a variety of methods without attention to his or her
need for remediation. Competency assessment must involve more than a checklist and a test (Whelam, 2006).
Not only is there is a lack of consensus about the definition of competence and how to validate it appropriately;
there is ambiguity about how a registered nurse (RN) becomes competent and maintains competence. Effective
competency validation requires a dynamic process dependent on the skill or behavior to be assessed, the practice
setting, and the expertise of the staff member. Too often,
one validation method is used for all staff every time the
skill or behavior is validated. Competence assessment is
a dynamic review of the practice of an individual nurse.
It is critical to recognize that competence at one point in
time does not ensure competence at a later date. Thus,
there is a need for a process that encourages ongoing assessment of critical areas such as emergency management
skills that incorporate elements of nursing practice that
transcend procedural competence.