Are you ever left wondering if the skills and strategies discussed in your nurse residency program ever make it back to the bedside? Many residency coordinators spend countless hours working with new graduate nurses to improve their practice, but never really know for sure if those skills and competencies are being transferred back to the bedside where it really matters. Therefore, it is important to assess and validate that our new graduate nurses are truly competent in the skills covered. 

Nurse leaders and educators ... I hear you groaning now and I am right there with you! Competency assessment can be so burdensome on you and your resources. And how do you really validate professional skills anyway? If you walk around and observe your new graduate nurses, of course, they are going to perform as they should, right?! But who has time to follow someone around anyway!? I know I don’t!

We’re excited to introduce the Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program’s NEW ‘Competency Assessment and Validation Tool’ now available to current users of the Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program. This tool, designed using the Donna Wright Competency Assessment Model, puts the ownership and accountability for competency validation on the residents (leaving you with more time and less headache).  

How the Competency Validation Tool Works:
Each facility using the Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program, whether in the Online or Blended format, has the option to utilize this tool to individually track progress of resident competence. For each of the twelve main competencies covered in the IONRP curriculum, residents will select from the various validation methods based on his or her preference. Residents can select from numerous verification methods including (but not limited to) written exemplars, self-assessment, peer review, evidence of daily work and QI monitoring. As residents complete individual verification options, they will place their evidence in a competency folder submitting it all to the residency coordinator upon completion. 

Following the completion, the residency coordinator can review the records to determine if the resident is indeed competent (and file their records) or continue to work with the resident to further develop their skills as necessary. The important thing is that the act of validating the competence is in the hands of the resident and doesn’t need to be something you have piled on your never-ending to-do list. As with everything, it will be important for facilities to implement due dates and expectations for completion of the competency tool, as well as, hold the resident accountable for meeting those expectations and have clearly defined consequences if they fail to do so. 

Interested in learning more about the Competency Validation Tool? Contact us today to learn more. 

Nicole Weathers
Program Manager, IONRP
nicole-weathers@uiowa.edu