Development of undergraduate nursing entrustable professional activities through using a participatory design approach

Abstract

Background: Competencies represent sets of general abilities and attributes that graduating nurses must acquire. Most nursing programs adopt competency based assessment and training approaches to prepare their students to enter the clinical environment. However, some concern has been raised regarding their interpretation and implementation in everyday clinical training. To operationalize competencies for better use in clinical practice, the Entrustable Professional Activities framework (EPAs) was introduced in 2005 by ten Cate.

Aim: The aim of this study is to develop a framework of EPAs for an Undergraduate Nursing Program.

Method: Through using a participatory action design approach, the participants developed a set of EPAs linked with competencies for an Undergraduate Nursing Program. Thematic analysis was performed, and EPAs framework validity was constructed.

Result: A total of eight core EPAs were developed and each one was operationalized by a brief description and nested within the related core competency domains. Supervision levels and entrustment decisions were determined.

Conclusion: The development of EPAs specific to undergraduate nursing programs may offer the opportunity to have standardized language to evaluate students' progress toward competency in nursing. It is recommended to conduct further research to improve the developed EPAs.

Keywords: Assessment; Clinical educators; Entrustable professional activities; Nursing.