Beyond licensure and professional certification, neither the health care industry sector nor individual nurses possess sufficient validated guidance necessary to assess and then improve competency in a standardized, evidence-based manner.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has driven a sustained period of accelerated practice and practice development, requiring rapid and expert adaptation on the part of medical-surgical nurses and all categories of health care industry sector stakeholders.

An evidence-based, standardized approach to defining medical-surgical nursing practice competencies provides the profession and the industry the tools it needs to apply these nursing professionals to their highest and greatest capacity, to the benefit of patients, the health care sector, the public and the profession.

Read the statement from AMSN.