Competency based education in terms of its suitability to Respriatory care education - Essay Example

Competency Based Education This essay talks about competency based education in terms of its sustainability to Respiratory care education. Competencybased education can be understood as a systematic but flexible learning process that focuses on the level of proficiency needed in a given occupation. According to Wyka, Mathew and Clark (5), respiratory care education is the training that is given to respiratory care practitioners to prepare them for their career. In this essay I discuss how competency based education has influenced this kind of training.

I also provide a discussion on how competency based education promote critical thinking, clinical decision-making, transformative learning, and reflective judgment.Respiratory care education requires systematic approach due to the complex level of knowledge and skills that the students are required to have them become competent practitioners. Respiratory care practice is also a regulated profession that has guideline and standards which the practitioners should meet (Wyka, Mathew and Clark 5).

These make the respiratory care education to require a systematic but flexible approach. The competency-based education is well known to provide this kind of characteristics to a learning process and thus it can play a fundamental role in the sustainability of this kind of education.Competency based education can play various roles in the sustainability of respiratory care education. One of the major roles it can play is assisting in the selection and design of the module or course content. Another role it can play is assisting in the identification of individual course or module performance objectives.

It can also assist in defining the ways in which respiratory care education can use to administer the course content. Competency based education can also assist in the selection of the kind of assessment that is suitable for the kind of competency that the learners are required to attain in respiratory care education. Another way that this kind of education can assist is through providing an evaluation method that can relate individual’s performance to the specified criteria or standards. This can assist in informing the trainers whether the students have developed the level of competency that is sufficient for effective practicing as respiratory care professions.

Competency based education program involves a selection of the knowledge and skills which should be taught in a course as well as determination of how these knowledge and skills should be taught. It also involves the selection of the kind of competencies that should be tested as well as how these competencies should be tested to indicate the level of knowledge and skills that the students have been able to acquire. It also provides a way in which students’ progress in learning can be structured in order to guide both instruction and assessment.

However, although it is applicable in the respiratory care education, it can be applied in other types of education as well. In this case, competency based education would assist in ensuring that the respiratory care education learners are provided with the most appropriate skills and knowledge. It would also ensure that they get this knowledge and skills in a manner that enhances their understanding. This would promote their learning and the level of knowledge and skills that they are able to retain, which would address the previously described issues of clinical decision-making and transformative learning.

It would also ensure that they are tested in all the relevant skills and knowledge and also make sure that the testing methods selected promote skills development. This would promote their critical thinking and reflective analysis of situations that would address the issue of construct of critical thinking and reflective judgment. ReferencesWyka, Kenneth, A, Mathew, Paul Joseph and Clark, William, F. Foundation of Respiratory Care. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2002. Print.