Our tip: Skills practice is one area where you can easily empower your students to take ownership of their learning – and free up faculty time and space in the process. A student-driven, digital skills practice and assessment program that works both remotely and onsite can give students flexibility as well as the freedom of unlimited deliberate practice – either independently or peer-to-peer – until they’re confident in their fundamental skills. Immediate, personalized electronic evaluations show learners areas for improvement and automated reports give faculty the insights they need on learners’ performance and utilization. 

Our tip: The AACN Essentials suggest creating "progression indicators" at specified points within your program of study to track students’ achievement of competencies as part of a robust program assessment plan.⁶ Collecting data electronically during your progression indicators with an electronic checklist for skills or a simulation learning management system (LMS) for high-fidelity simulations can help you connect the dots on students’ assessment data over time, making it easier to see their progress across courses.

Our tip: With the increased focus on clinical judgment on the NCLEX, your program is likely seeking even more strategies to foster this skill. You may want to consider virtual simulations that provide automatic, personalized feedback on clinical judgment and decision-making skills after placing students in the center of a lifelike patient encounter. Performance data, including scenario results and scores, decisions the student makes, and SBAR communications give you the visibility you need to formatively assess how well they’re grasping the learning objectives and refining their clinical judgment.

Our tip: Your program is likely already collecting student data in many forms and from numerous sources. If you’re currently collecting skills or simulation performance data on pencil and paper, the shift to competency-based education may be a good time to think about implementing ways to better manage your data. Switching to an electronic skills checklist or simulation learning management system (LMS) can help you organize your data into actionable trends that will make it easier to personalize your students’ learning paths. Well-structured data can also help you reveal areas for adjustments to teaching strategies or opportunities for faculty development. 

Our tip: Due to its hands-on and observable nature, simulation can allow you to assess several areas of the 2021 AACN Essentials. A single scenario can be designed to span across competencies and sub-competencies within multiple domains of the AACN Essentials, including:

• Demonstrating clinical judgment founded on a broad knowledge base (Domain 1: Knowledge for Nursing Practice)
• Integrating assessment skills in practice (Domain 2: Person-Centered Care)
• Applying quality improvement principles in care delivery (Domain 5: Quality and Safety)
• Performing effectively in different team roles, using principles and values of team dynamics (Domain 6: Interprofessional Partnerships)

The same scenario would also allow students to demonstrate several of the AACN Essentials concepts that are integrated within the competencies, such as:

• Practicing Clinical Judgment to make decisions based on nursing knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning
• Using effective Communication with individuals and other health professionals
• Exercising Compassionate Care as an essential element of person-centered care

And, the AACN advises that learning experiences in competency-based education must be experiential, interactive, and reflective.¹¹ Simulation with quality debriefing encompasses all these qualities, making for an effective and engaging experience that will make learning stick.