Nursing competency assessment across the continuum of care.

Establishing a thorough and effective competency assessment program is essential to meeting standards of regulatory bodies and providing quality care. Nursing education specialists continue to strive to provide a competency assessment process that is meaningful and uncomplicated. This article describes the implementation of a nursing competency assessment program in a large midwestern medical center that spans the continuum of care and incorporates all nursing roles that require nursing licensure, including advanced practice nurses, into one centralized nursing competency program. Competency program infrastructure, topic identification, documentation to support the evaluation and validation process, and continuous improvement opportunities are described.