Shaping the Future: Scaling Entrustable Professional Activities to Nonclinical Simulation Operations Specialist...

Simulation is essential for health professions education, but a rising demand for simulation operations personnel strains an already overextended workforce. In response, we are developing a competency-based minor pathway within an undergraduate degree designed to train students without clinical backgrounds as nonclinical simulation operations specialists (SOS). This work exposed challenges in competency-based education, where assessing competence and determining readiness for autonomous professional practice remain difficult. To strengthen competency assessment and ensure workforce readiness, we propose scaling entrustable professional activities (EPAs), originally designed for medical education, to nonclinical SOS training. To accomplish this, we propose a 4-phase research process guided by the Medical Research Council framework for the design of complex interventions: (1) theory and evidence identification; (2) framework modeling; (3) piloting; and (4) hybrid evaluation and implementation. We anticipate that the resulting EPA-based assessment framework will hold the potential to enable rigorous, defensible assessment in nonclinical SOS training, providing a replicable model for future EPA-based program development in emerging competency-based nonclinical professional fields.