AMSN Introduces AMSN Competency Framework

Setting the standard in Med-Surg nursing competency, AMSN’s Competency Framework for real-time benchmarking and growth planning empowers nurses and organizations with a comprehensive, reliable tool to accurately measure strengths, identify knowledge and performance gaps and strategically plan for future growth.

SEWELL, NEW JERSEY – In a continued effort to set the standard in medical-surgical nursing competency, the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), the nation’s only specialty nursing organization dedicated to the practice of medical-surgical nursing, has created a robust and comprehensive framework for measuring competency far beyond the fundamentals of nursing higher education: AMSN Competency Framework.

Launched Spring 2022, AMSN’s Competency Framework measures three dimensions of competency: individual nurse attributes, practice competencies and outcome measures at the individual nurse, patient and organizational level, with the proficiency levels of emerging, established and expert assigned accordingly.

Each dimension of the competency framework is made up of specific domains and together, they provide individuals and organizations with a holistic understanding of nurse competency and outcomes for individual nurses, patients, and organizations. The domains and competencies found within the framework are universal to med-surg nurses. They can be applied and measured at any proficiency level to measure and benchmark the performance of an individual nurse or team of nurses at the institutional level. The resulting data can then be utilized to build an individualized learning plan for individual nurses or to assist organizations with workforce planning and development.

“For the last 10 years, competency models have been used to great effect in the realm of higher nursing education. Skills-based assessment is a core component of most nursing programs, but competency models dig even deeper, uncovering broad domains of cross-disciplinary knowledge that measure a student’s learning outcomes and expectations,” reports AMSN President, Dr. Summer Bryant, DNP, RN, CENP, CMSRN. “The goal is to ensure that future nurses are equipped not just with credit hours, classroom training, or clinical experience but also with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities required in the medical-surgical nursing setting, thus ensuring high quality patient care delivery.”

For individual nurses, the newly created AMSN Competency Framework provides a roadmap for their career which captures their expanding knowledge and expertise over time, according to AMSN Chief Executive Officer, Terri Hinkley, EdD, MBA, BScN, RN, CAE. “AMSN came up with a vision for a competency framework that was robust and comprehensive to allow nurses to understand their competencies and compare them to the expected level of competency and how they can continue building skills and competencies that will help over the course of their career,” Hinkley shares.

AMSN worked closely with competency experts and a diverse group of medical-surgical subject matter experts to identify, define and validate the clinical and professional competencies required of medical-surgical nurses at every proficiency level. There were over 400 knowledge and task statements validated by over 1,600 medical-surgical nurses across the United States. Practice competencies were identified and validated across 28 subdomains of competency in five domain areas.

For more information on AMSN Medical-Surgical Nursing Competency Framework, view details by visiting the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN).

To learn more download the whitepaper Setting the Standard in Med-Surg Nursing Competency: Leveraging the AMSN Competency Framework.

ABOUT THE ACADEMY OF MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSES (AMSN)

The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) is the only specialty nursing organization dedicated to the practice of medical-surgical nursing. A dynamic community of more than 10,000 medical-surgical nurses, and more than 40,000 Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board (MSNCB) certificants, AMSN ranges from nurses who work in a hospital’s med-surg unit, to those in leadership roles working to impact patient safety and quality of care delivery.

AMSN is committed to quality patient care through professional development, certification, scholarship, and advocacy. Medical-surgical nursing is the single largest nursing specialty in the United States and beyond, practiced in several settings across the health care industry, including hospitals, outpatient settings, in homes, via telemedicine and other non-traditional settings. For more information, visit www.amsn.org and on Twitter @MedSurgNurses.

HEADQUARTERS:
Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses
200 East Holly Ave
Sewell, NJ 08080
www.amsn.org