Competency-based education for teaching the concept of communication

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Communication
• Competency-Based Education

Background:

• Nursing education lacks formal materials for teaching and assessing communication skills, despite their recognized importance.
• The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) standards highlight communication as crucial for nurse competency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore current communication education implementation in nursing programs.
• To develop and preliminarily test a competency-based framework for teaching communication skills.
• To create a systematic approach for enhancing nurse communication competency.

Main Methods:

• A national survey assessed communication content implementation in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs.
• Competency-based communication learning objectives were developed and refined.
• A scaffolded learning approach, including an online module, was used to teach communication skills to nursing students.

Main Results:

• Moderate implementation of communication content was reported in BSN programs, varying by care area.
• A finalized list of 44 communication learning objectives was established.
• Students showed significant improvements in communication knowledge and ability to be present after the online module, with high satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• This research presents the first theoretically-grounded, systematic framework for competency-based communication education in nursing.
• The developed framework and scaffolded learning approach show promise for improving nursing communication skills.
• Further assessment is needed to address variance in assessed communication competency post-intervention.