Further research is needed to evaluate outcomes and determine educational approaches that will produce positive changes in nurses' attitudes toward, knowledge of, and application of complementary therapies.

Establishing a thorough and effective competency assessment program is essential to meeting standards of regulatory bodies and providing quality care. Nursing education specialists continue to strive to provide a competency assessment process that is meaningful and uncomplicated. This article describes the implementation of a nursing competency assessment program in a large midwestern medical center that spans the continuum of care and incorporates all nursing roles that require nursing licensure, including advanced practice nurses, into one centralized nursing competency program. Competency program infrastructure, topic identification, documentation to support the evaluation and validation process, and continuous improvement opportunities are described.

This article addresses the nursing professional development practitioner’s role in the design and management of the evaluation process used for a large-scale educational intervention developed to improve patient satisfaction with the use of empathic communication skills. The scope of this educational activity and the direct alignment with organizational priorities necessitated that a robust and comprehensive evaluation strategy be implemented to demonstrate the connection from the education to performance and, ultimately, organization-level results.

The accredited provider unit in a large academic medical center includes 26 nurse planners spread across the institution. The provider unit, its structure, and its relationship to the rest of the organization are discussed. The selection, orientation, and ongoing competence of nurse planners are addressed. Operations and communication strategies are featured.

Communicating with empathy is a critical skill within the nurse-patient relationship and a driver of a positive patient experience. Staff at a large midwestern medical organization identified an education-based communication improvement strategy to address a gap within its patient experience data. An evidence-based empathic communication education framework was developed and delivered to more than 8,400 nurses and allied health staff. Posteducation sustainment strategies were included within the framework to support ongoing concept mastery and practical application. A multilevel evaluation strategy was used to measure the education's impact from both a learner and patient perspective. Evaluations demonstrated the chain of impact from reaction, learning, behavior, and results, indicating the education improved staff members' ability to communicate empathically, contributing to an increase from baseline in communication-related patient experience data. [ J Contin Educ Nurs . 2021;52(7):319–325.]