Meaningful Partnership with Population Health Clinicians to Enhance Competency-based Nursing

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials established a competency-based education (CBE) framework to prepare practice-ready nurses through pre-licensure and graduate competencies across 10 domains (AACN, 2021). With AACN pilot funding, Creighton University College of Nursing and the Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Research (CIPER) developed innovative CBE teaching strategies for baccalaureate students in population health clinical settings. Agency partners played a pivotal role in competency development through observation, role modeling, prompting, questioning, and feedback (Gonzalez et al., 2021). Effective teaching and assessment methods are critical to supporting learners and evaluating competencies within this framework (Lewis et al., 2022).Implementation: Population health clinical faculty and CIPER core faculty designed 24 structured, application-level activities, called checkpoints, for an accelerated nursing program. Integrated across three 8-week clinical rotations, these checkpoints align with Bloom’s taxonomy and AACN Essentials Domains 3 (population health) and 6 (interprofessional partnership). After two years of implementation, clinical agency partners provided feedback through site-specific semi-structured interviews (n=11) at agencies in Nebraska and Arizona.Evaluation plan: Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews revealed five key themes about the effectiveness of the checkpoint strategy and the interprofessional skills essential for practice. Findings highlight strengths and limitations of the intervention and offer evidence for improving BSN-level CBE assessment strategies in population health rotations.Outcome(s) and significance: Partnering with clinical agencies for teaching and assessment enhances CBE approaches, supporting the development of collaborative, practice-ready graduates. Insights from agency partners strengthen competency-based strategies, ensuring alignment with real-world practice needs and advancing health outcomes in population health settings.