Selecting technical skills to teach for competency

This pilot project describes a method using data from the clinical setting to assist nurse educators in the selection of technical nursing skills to teach for competency within the basic nursing program. Based on Dr. Dorothy del Bueno's proposal that skills taught should be those which are most frequently performed and considered most important in the community where new graduates are employed, five registered nurses in 16 metropolitan hospitals were asked to rate 154 technical nursing skills for frequency and importance. Findings for medical-surgical, intensive care, obstetric and pediatric areas, as well as for all groups combined, are described as skills ranking from 1) most frequent to least frequent, 2) most important to least important, and 3) most important/most frequent to least important/least frequent. Examination of skills placement within the rankings assisted faculty within an associate degree program to decide which skills to select and which to eliminate from the program.