4th Curriculum convention on Competency Based Education organised by MCON, MAHE Manipal

The resource persons for the session were Dr. Pragna Rao, Dean, KMC Manipal, and Dr. Vinitha Ravindran, Professor, College of Nursing, CMC Vellore. Dr. Anice George, Dean welcomed the gathering and introduced the resource persons. Dr. Anice George, in her opening remarks emphasized the significance of the curriculum convention and the theme for the day “competency based education’, which is the need of the hour to keep on par with international standards.

The visible concepts that we look on in student learning is knowledge and skills but the qualities like behaviour, values, responsibility, motives, confidence etc. are few hidden competencies in a student which are not being regularly assessed and thus competency based education (CBE) is the need of an hour says Dr Pragna Rao. She emphasised CBE encourages student to perform independently at workplace or clinical area. CBE, also known as outcome based learning is directed towards attaining social, personal, technical and methodological competencies by the student in providing comprehensive care to the patient.

Timely feedback, building up of communication skills, regular documentation of clinical activities using log book, identifying difficulty level of competencies and tackling them effectively were the points discussed during group activity that involved faculty, students, alumni and parents. Dr Pragna Rao also highlighted that every student has their own learning curve and it’s the prime responsibility of the teacher to facilitate student progress from novice to proficient and finally towards expertise.

Dr Vinitha Ravindran in her session on implementation of competency based nursing education discussed that competence is a state and competency is a behaviour or core abilities of a person to perform which is based on holistic approach, thus competencies support learning and assessment, helps to develop curriculum, encourages consistency and allows assessment of an individual.

The competency checklist was identified by each group following the core areas/ domains, listing the competency domains, defining competency criteria and lastly writing the measurable performance indicators. The group discussion concluded with presentation of the competencies identified by the team. She also highlighted the Methods of evaluating CBE through simulation, OSCE, self-evaluation and peer evaluation.

The session concluded with closing remarks by the Dean in taking forward this activity by each department and gradually developing the competencies a nursing graduate should develop at the end of the education. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mrs. Daisy J Lobo, Associate Professor and Convenor of the program.