Development of a Competency-Based Curriculum for Advanced Practice Providers in Allergy and Immunology

Advanced practice providers (APPs) are a rapidly expanding segment of the health care workforce, including subspeciality practices. They deliver high-quality and cost-effective care in a variety of medical settings and are valuable collaborators with physician colleagues. Other specialties have been successful in developing transition to training programs and/or formal certificate programs specific to the APP role. However, this is lacking in allergy and immunology (A&I) because no structured training is currently available on a national level specific to the APP role.

We describe the development of competencies to inform a competency-based curriculum for APPs in A&I. This curriculum seeks to establish fundamental-level knowledge within a target audience of APPs new to the field and serve as a complement to the clinical training obtained at their practice site.

Competencies were developed in three stages: initial competency development through an expert panel of doctors of medicine and APPs; competence validation through a modified Delphi approach in which 35 physicians and APPs provided feedback on the drafted competencies and competency refinement where provided qualitative and quantitative feedback was incorporated into finalized competencies. Competencies were developed in 11 previously identified educational areas.

A total of 112 competencies within 11 identified educational areas were included in the initial draft. Thirty-five individuals completed competency validation and 99 competencies were included in the final version.

Competencies developed will inform individual lectures and modules in a core curriculum for APPs in A&I, a steppingstone in education dedicated to the APP role in the field.