Evidence-Based Competency Management for the Intensive Care Unit

End your struggle to assess, validate, and document the competency of your ICU nurses.

NEW! Second edition includes evidence-based competencies!

You hire only the best nurses for your intensive care unit (ICU), and you depend on them to deliver optimum patient care even in the most stressful situations. The best way to measure and assess their readiness in the fast-paced ICU is through evidence-based competencies.

Now you don’t have to spend time researching evidence-based competencies to assess your ICU nurses’ skill sets! AuthorBarbara A. Brunt, MA, MN, RN-BC, has taken her best-selling series and cited each competency with solid, reputable evidence so you can benchmark your staff against industry standards.

This second edition is fully revised with the latest regulations from The Joint Commission and other regulatory bodies. It ensures you have everything you need to meet and exceed evidence-based competency requirements. As a book and CD-ROM pair, this resource is a complete evidence-based competency program created specifically for assessing, validating, and documenting the skills of your ICU nurses. You’ll find proven tips and strategies for effectively evaluating the training needs of your staff.

Time-Saving Bonus! The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the skill sheets in the book. It’s a snap to customize them to meet your needs.

What’s included?

This comprehensive, yet easy-to-use, resource consists of:

• 49 evidence-based competency skill sheets—we’ve done the work for you by putting together ready-to-use assessment skill sheets
• 24 role-related skill sheets that make it easy to assess the competencies of staff members in specific positions
• 150 pages of invaluable information to help you develop—or revamp—your competency assessment program
• Best practices for selecting annual competencies for validation
• The Competencies Analyzer spreadsheet to help you document and track staff skills
• A CD-ROM containing each skill sheet ready for you to implement or customize for use in your facility today

This resource is jam-packed with expert advice to help you:

• Schedule and organize competency assessments
  Use our proven formula to determine which evidence-based competencies to evaluate each year, and how to tie competencies to annual performance reviews
• Develop an evidence-based competency assessment program
  Save time with practical strategies for designing a compliant, consistent, and effective competency assessment program
• Recognize the differences between mandatory annual training andcompetency validation
  Don’t confuse validating clinical proficiency with mandatory training topics such as fire safety and sexual harassment
• Maintain a consistent validation system
  Ensure that clinical proficiency is assessed and validated in a consistent manner with our easy-to-implement skill sheets
• Keep up with new competencies
  Stay current on requirements for verifying and documenting the ever-changing new—and existing—competencies, including those for new equipment

Table of Contents at a glance:

Chapter 1: Why is competency validation required?
Chapter 2: What is competency validation?
Chapter 3: Include competency validation in job descriptions and the performance-evaluation process
Chapter 4: Train staff to perform competency validation
Chapter 5: Keep up with new competencies
Chapter 6: Using your skills checklists

Learning objectives:

• Design a competency plan to effectively assess employee competence
• Identify advantages of competency-based education
• Describe methods of validating competencies
• Recognize the benefits of incorporating competency assessment into job descriptions and performance evaluation tools
• Discuss the key elements required of performance-based job descriptions
• Develop a training program to train staff to perform competency assessment
• Maintain consistency in a competency validation system
• Identify steps for effective program documentation
• Recognize the essential qualities needed by competency assessors
• List potential categories for new competencies
• Identify best practices for implementing new competencies
• Discuss dimensions of competencies
• Differentiate between orientation checklists and skill checklists

Barbara A. Brunt, MA, MN, RN-BC is director of nursing education and staff development for Summa Health System in Akron, OH. Brunt is currently serving a two-year term as president of NNSDO. She has held a variety of staff development positions, including education coordinator and director, for the past 30 years. Brunt has presented on a variety of topics both locally and nationally and has published numerous articles, chapters, and books. She is a noted author, including Competencies for Staff Educators: Tools to Evaluate and Enhance Nursing Professional Development, published by HCPro.

Brunt was joined on this project by contributing authors Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN, Gwen A. Valois, MS, RN, BC, and Jane G. Alberico, MS, RN, CEN.