Embracing a competency-based specialty curriculum for community-based nursing roles.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Public Health Nursing
• Community Health

Background:

• Public health nursing (PHN) competencies guide curriculum development.
• Existing competencies may not fully encompass broader community health definitions.
• The need to evaluate applicability to diverse community-based specialties is recognized.

Purpose of the Study:

• Assess the alignment between Quad Council PHN competencies and four community-based specialties.
• Determine the suitability of a Quad Council-based curriculum for preparing graduates in these specialties.
• Identify any gaps in competencies for home health, occupational health, environmental health, and school nursing.

Main Methods:

• A multistep competency cross-mapping project was conducted.
• The Quad Council competencies were compared with competencies of four community-based specialties.
• Validation was performed with practice leaders in the respective fields.

Main Results:

• Strong alignment was found between Quad Council competencies and the community-based specialties.
• Specific content areas requiring attention for specialty preparation were identified.
• Didactic and clinical strategies were proposed to address identified competency gaps.

Conclusions:

• A Quad Council-based curriculum is appropriate for preparing nurses in community-based specialties.
• Integration of specialty-specific competencies within clinical settings is crucial.
• This framework supports the development of a Doctorate of Nursing Practice curriculum in PHN.