The Health-Related Professions - Essay Example

Hence, the new employees cannot satisfy the job requirements. Competency-based curricula pursue to impart graduates with “21st-century workplace skills, namely: attitudes and personal characteristics; essential skills; integrative-applied skills; and premium skills.

Attitudes and personal characteristics encompass aspects such as creativity, empathy, adaptability, flexibility, and a positive attitude. Essential skills, on the other hand, encompass aspects such as competency skills for simple tasks, interpersonal skills, team skills, numeracy and computation skills, writing, speaking, and reading. Integrative-applied skills encompass aspects such as critical thinking, application of technology to tasks, information-user skills, presentation skills, problem recognition and solving, and reasoning (Anema & McCy, 2010).

Lastly, premium skills encompass the capability to understand organizational and contextual issues, ethics, project management and supervision, systems thinking, multi-cultural competence skills, negotiation skills, and internationalization skills. Competency-based curricula refer to assessments that guarantee that graduates within all disciplines manifest essential knowledge, skills, attitudes so as to enter the workforce and start functioning within entry-level positions (Lenburg, Abdur-Rahman, Spencer, Boyer & Klein, 2011).

There are a number of reason that has contributed to increased interest in competency-based curricula: (a) educational institutions and providers require evidence pointing that anyone who completes a degree or course has attained a certain level of competency; accrediting, regulatory, and professional institutions necessitate assurance pointing that completion of an educational endeavour highlights competency; there is enhanced accountability for the costs and time required to complete educational endeavours and establish whether they attain the anticipated outcomes; employers frequently hire workers who are yet to demonstrate basic competencies critical for entry-level positions; and, regulatory, legal, quality measures, and external standards necessitate demonstration of competence (Anema & McCy, 2010).

Competency centres on an individual’s capability to perform activities related to work, learning, and life skills. Competency, on the other hand, describes actions or skills that the person is expected to demonstrate. Competency is person-related and delineates a person’s knowledge, skills, and capabilities that render it possible to function within a job. Researchers and scholars place diverse meanings and avail diverse examples centring on how to implement and assess competency-based curricula.

The shared characteristics of competency-based programs entail: acquisition of critical cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills; perpetual development of skills; broadly based competency development stemming from the best professional evidence, contemporary standards, and regulations; the of adult learning principles; authentic assessments that are valid and reliable; and, individual learning style and capabilities are highlighted and appreciated. 2. Stand in the Debate The health-related professions such as nursing require demonstrated competency within their practitioners.

Continuing competency is expected to guarantee that expert quality care is being availed. Leaders within the medical education programs have been at the heart of implementing competency-based curricula (CBC). Competency-based curricula avail a means of guaranteeing that learners are competent towards the end of their educational endeavours. The competency-based approach remains underpinned by four assumptions: (a) performance measures should be observable; (b) the criteria should connect to life outcomes such as occupations and education; (c) competencies should be described and defined realistically; and, well-articulated information detailing how to establish competencies should be made public (Harden, Crosby, Davis & Friedman, 1999).

A competency-based approach can contribute to delivering a difference in preparing fresh graduates and present workers to function effectively within their jobs (Calhoun, Wrobel & Finnegan, 2011). The identification of the competencies required in nursing is particularly relevant for nursing education programs to guarantee that the curricula sufficiently prepare students to enter the profession subsequent to graduation. A competency-based curriculum aids to identify suitable content and avoiding inappropriate content and/or redundancy (Calhoun, Wrobel & Finnegan, 2011).

Furthermore, such a curriculum highlights understanding and performance, rather than isolated facts. Other characteristics of a competency-based curriculum feature student-centred as opposed to teacher-centred, and are linked to contemporary practice. Competency-based curriculum informs students’ right at the beginning of the course which specific clinical outcomes, skills, and degree of competence they are expected to manifest. 3. Conclusion I support the implementation of competency-based curricula in nursing since it addresses accountability for educational outcomes and aligns workforce needs with employers’ or job expectations, and allow the appraisal of competence within educational programs.

Presently, colleges and universities have been slow in adopting competency-based curricula. Educational outcomes within higher education institutions mainly focus on what is produced. The measures employed by aid institutions to demonstrate accountability to internal and external stakeholders hinges on aspects such as retention, graduation, and placement rates. These measures fail to determine what students know and are capable of doing within work settings.