The Design of an Evidence-Based Competency Model

A nursing professional practice model is designed to provide a framework for how nursing practices, communicates, leads, collaborates, and provides the highest quality of care as individuals navigate the complex healthcare system. An infrastructure for learning, competency, and performance needs to be integrated into this model as a foundation for accelerating business and clinical initiatives, promoting standardization, and sharing successful practices. This article describes the process that a large healthcare system used to develop a 5-year strategy whose outcomes resulted in professional and foundational competency domains, assumptions about their use, and future work to align and embed these competencies into the current environment. It provides a road map for nursing professional development practitioners to identify evidenced-based competencies which reflect the professional practice model and then use it as a framework to impart the knowledge, skills, and judgment required for practicing professional nurses.