Specifying Competency Outcomes: Eight Core Practices

In the COPA Model, the constellation of eight core practice competencies are categories under which a flexible array of specific skills can be clustered for particular levels, types, or foci of practice. These core competency categories collectively define practice and are applicable universally in education and practice environments. Although many of them are required simultaneously in actual practice, they are discrete skills that can be adapted to fit specific settings, clients, employees, and types and levels of students and practitioners. These essential core competencies are: assessment and intervention, communication, critical thinking, teaching, human caring relationships, management, leadership, and knowledge integration skills (Lenburg, 1992-1995, 1998, 1999; Luttrell et al, 1999). Essentially all specific subskills nurses perform can be listed under one of these competency categories, as illustrated in the examples in Figure 1. Each competence category can incorporate a flexible array of subskills that further specifies the required practice abilities for particular levels or types of employees or students in diverse settings.

This framework is attractive, in part, because of the universality of its competency classification and its applicability to education and practice in various circumstances and environments. Quite simply, these core competencies outline the array of abilities all nurses need to incorporate in fulfilling their roles, whether clinical, educational, administrative or otherwise; the related subskills and their implementation will vary with circumstances. The examples in Figure 1 are cited to stimulate ideas for adaptation to particular situations, such as case management systems as described by Lenburg (1999) in the Cohen and Cesta (1999) text. They also apply to other disciplines as illustrated in the conference proceeding of the American Association of Primary Care Physicians (Lenburg, 1994).