Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the serial relationship
between behavioral criteria (competencies) and the measured evidence of
the application of the competencies by the learner. Specifically, our
task is twofold: 1) to describe the development of a competency based
educational program; and 2) to measure the application of those competencies
by the learner in clinical field settings. The specified competencies
are select behaviors from a nursing curriculum. This study
concentrates on the educational process and the application of specified
behavior during the learning period. No attempt is made to examine
the relative merits of the select behaviors or to measure the effects
of the application of nurse behavior on changes in patient health status.
The author starts with the basic assumptions that: 1) education
(learning) is a developing science; 2) special education contributes
substantially to the development of educational technology; 3) professional
education shares some common concerns with special education,
and 4) the educational process for nursing education has the same attributes
as education in general.