A Sisyphean task: Developing and revising public health nursing competencies

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Nursing Education
• Professional Competencies

Background:

• Competencies aim to improve public health workforce skills.
• Various nursing organizations promote competencies for public health nursing (PHN) practice and education.
• The proliferation of multiple competency sets raises concerns about redundancy and evaluation utility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the psychometric evaluation of existing public health nursing competencies.
• To analyze the definitions, conceptual basis, and taxonomy of prominent PHN competency documents.

Main Methods:

• A literature review focused on psychometric evaluation research of PHN competencies.
• Qualitative content analysis of seven key documents from major nursing organizations (2000-2021).
• Analysis included competency definitions, theoretical frameworks, and alignment with Bloom's revised taxonomy.

Main Results:

• No studies were found that psychometrically evaluated the reviewed competency sets.
• Content analysis revealed inconsistent or absent definitions and theoretical underpinnings.
• Competencies showed proliferation over time with minimal representation at higher cognitive levels (Bloom's taxonomy).

Conclusions:

• Lack of reliability and validity testing complicates assessment for PHN educators and practitioners.
• Multiple, overlapping competencies diminish the visibility and coherence of the PHN role.
• Recommendations are proposed for future efforts to improve PHN competency development and evidence base.