The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was established in 1905. Its founder, Andrew Carnegie, created it to act as a general pension fund for universities in the United States, Canada and Newfoundland. Carnegie quickly realized there needed to be a way to determine which schools qualified as legitimate institutions of higher education, and thus which faculty members qualified for pensions.
This was how the “Carnegie Unit” was born. It measures students’ progress in a course based on credit hours. In other words, time spent in class. More than a century later, this is still how almost all colleges and universities assess aptitude.
New data suggests that this method of assessment leaves a great deal to be desired. Today, the Carnegie Foundation is leading the effort to transform the way we instruct and assess students. One option is a competency-based education (CBE) teaching model.
In a field like allied healthcare that relies so heavily on the fusion of theoretical knowledge and practical skills application, the model holds significant promise, especially as employers face a preparation-to-practice skills gap affecting as much as 40% of newly graduated professionals.
In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed what competency-based education means, its benefits and how to implement your own CBE program. Part two will focus on best practices for assessing learner progress using the teaching model to make the most of this transformative strategy. But first a brief recap…
Whereas traditional education focuses on imparting theoretical knowledge through lectures, textbooks and exams, competency-based education places a greater emphasis on skills proficiency. In this format, learners are encouraged to put theoretical knowledge to use in real-world scenarios and settings. This way, they also gain practical knowledge and the confidence that they can perform the roles they aspire to. Benefits include:
To fully realize such benefits, instructors must properly assess learner progress, which requires a different approach from traditional methods.
Traditionally, health science learners have been required to pass theoretical exams after completing a certain number of credit hours to prove they’re ready to graduate or earn certification. But experts have come to realize that these kinds of high-stakes assessments do little to prepare individuals for the realities they will face day in and day out as professionals.
Time spent in a controlled classroom environment and standardized tests do not push learners to think critically about how they’d react to and work through the kinds of novel situations that arise regularly in healthcare.
As Amit Sevak, CEO of Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Timothy Knowles, President of the Carnegie Foundation explained, these traditional methods have several shortcomings:
There is a wealth of data that supports their theory. For instance, between July 2010 and 2015, more than 5,000 newly graduated nurses were assessed. Just 23% demonstrated entry-level competencies and practice readiness. The authors of the study, Joan M. Kavanagh, MSN, RN, NEA-BC and Christine Szweda, MS, BSN, RN, labeled their findings as a “crisis in competence.”
Their study is just one of many that supports the growing belief that traditional instructional methods and assessments pose the risk of “painting a false or incomplete picture of practice readiness.” And the consequences can be dire. From driving alarming burnout and turnover rates to threatening patient safety and countless other concerns, the failure to adequately prepare learners and assess their ability to perform in high-stress situations needs to be addressed.
Competency-based education holds much promise to this end, so long as instructors rethink how they track progress and qualify success by committing to:
In addition to helping learners master essential clinical skills, the competency-based education model also emphasizes the development of those intangible ones that make the best allied healthcare professionals—things like communication, empathy and adaptability. This is because it forces learners to think more creatively and interact with others to problem solve and achieve their desired objectives.
To be sure, today’s learners must still be provided with adequate foundational knowledge. The key is striking the right balance between academics and skill development—and encouraging learners to harness both through hands-on, experiential lessons, like simulations, practice assessments and internships or externships.
Rather than focusing on how long a learner engages in these experiences, instructors should instead consistently assess their development and provide guidance for continued growth. Sevak and Knowles explained how this form of assessment differs from traditional ones:
It’s worth noting that this approach mimics the way in which professionals continue to grow and hone their skills over their careers. It is a constant refinement and layering of competencies rather than learning something once and replicating the same action over and over. Instilling this growth mindset early on will serve learners (and their patients) for a lifetime.
The ability to capture, track, analyze and leverage key learner metrics along the way can create more powerful outcomes, both for individuals and instructors by shedding light on the effectiveness of different techniques. Yet, this is often easier said than done.
More than ever, health sciences instructors are strapped for time and resources. Dr. Tamara Willis is concerned that even if schools and employers manage to gather data, they’ll struggle to make sense of it.
“The data is only as good as your capacity to interpret it,” Willis said. “Schools will need staff to make sure the skills-based experiences are rigorous, evidence-based, meaningful, and not another faddish flyby, of which there are so many in education.”
Rather than placing the burden on their staff, leaders can engage with a partner like NHA both to implement an effective competency-based education program, and furnish instructors with the tools to easily access and analyze valuable learner metrics.
Meaningfully assessing learners in the competency-based education model requires giving less weight to high-stakes, standardized tests focused on theoretical knowledge, and instead consistently measuring a learner’s ability to demonstrate their understanding of material and proficiency through skills application.
NHA tools make it easy for both learners and instructors to regularly capture data that tracks progress and facilitates individualized, targeted learning. They include:
(Check out our “Boosting Exam Readiness” webinar for more tips on how to use NHA tools and analytics.)
Delivering meaningful learning experiences and facilitating skills mastery hinge on an instructor’s ability to provide learners with a rich experience that extends beyond textbooks and even the classroom, as discussed part 1 of this series. But that’s not all.
Instructors also need to be able to consistently track learner progress and leverage findings to create more powerful experiences and combat the current “crisis in competency,” which is not limited to any one allied healthcare specialty. Luckily, neither is the solution.
“The monumental shift from seat time to competency-based learning puts the spotlight on real-world job skills, whether they’re attained through prior learning, work experiences, internships or apprenticeships,” said NHA Product Integration Specialist Kelly Cobb, BSN, RN.
“This change opens a world of possibilities, including fostering academic-work partnerships. Rather than learning in silos, imagine a system where academia and industry enrich learners through collaborative partnerships. And by focusing on competencies, we can significantly address educational gaps across disciplines.
“The proof of learning becomes the skills you’ve mastered, not just the hours you’ve logged in a classroom.”
NHA solutions and analytics can help drive this transformation for you and your learners. Contact us today for more information.