Developing Competence for Nurses and Social Workers

Abstract

I nformal caregivers-primarily family members-are the foundation of rehabilitation, chronic care, and long-term support for older persons. The growing population of older persons and the changing health care delivery system (for example, shortened hospital stays) demand more of family caregivers and increase the toll on their health. 1 To help them cope with these demands, nurses and social workers, who treat diverse older populations, must have cultural competence to enable them to practice effectively with caregivers. 2 Along with increasing the emphasis on evidencebased practice, health care education is moving to a competence-based approach with clearly measured outcomes. 3,4 In this article, literature from the past decade, especially systematic reviews of evidencebased-practice dissemination and training, is used to inform nurse and social worker competence in supporting family caregivers. The reviews were from the medical education literature as well as from nursing and social work education, and some studies involved students and residents, not only postgraduate practitioners. IDENTIFYING COMPETENCEAcross disciplines, competence refers to being able to demonstrate that the knowledge, values, and skills learned can be integrated into practice. 3 The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which oversees standards for 76 professions (including nursing and social work), has adopted a competence model for accreditation. 4 Competence-based education and evaluation consist of two components: identification in clear, measurable terms, with indicators for levels of performance, of the specific skills required to practice a profession; and evaluation of skill acquisition through measurable criteria. 5