Operationalising capability-oriented education in advanced nursing practice: The potential of student-led individually created courses

Advanced practice nurses (APNs) increasingly work autonomously in complex and evolving healthcare environments, drawing on advanced clinical expertise, leadership, evidence translation and system-level decision-making. While contemporary competency-based education provides an important framework for developing and assessing professional competence, a capability approach offers a complementary educational approach to postgraduate APN education that can foster adaptability, critical reflection, self-directed learning and professional agency, CONTEMPORARY ISSUE: While contemporary literature recognises capability as essential to the APN role, less is known about the educational conditions through which capability can be developed. This requires attention not only to the outcomes expected of advanced practice nurses, but also to pedagogical frameworks through which capability may be fostered.

This paper examines capability as a framework for APN education and considers how it can be developed through learner agency, authentic experiential learning, critical reflection and appropriate academic scaffolding. Student-led Individually Created Courses (SLICCs) are proposed as a practical mechanism for operationalising capability-orientated education within postgraduate nursing curricula. By enabling nurses to identify learning priorities, negotiate learning outcomes, engage with authentic practice challenges and critically reflect on their development, SLICCs may help foster the judgement, autonomy and lifelong learning required for advanced practice. However, the application of SLICCs in postgraduate nursing education remains unexplored.

SLICCs provide a promising mechanism for translating a capability approach into educational practice, although further research is required to evaluate their contribution to capability development and advanced nursing practice.