Competency standards: clarifying the issues.

'Competency standards' is by now a familiar term to most nurses, and the rate at which many nursing organisations are developing their own set of standards would seem to suggest that competencies are an unproblematic, natural and indeed essential pursuit for us all. However, a review of the literature reveals that the competency movement does not meet with universal agreement or approval and it is timely for nursing groups to exercise cautious deliberation before embracing competencies blindly.