THE EFFECT OF IMPLEMENTING COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION MODEL ON NURSING STUDENTS’ CLINICAL PERFORMANCE IN CORONARY CARE UNIT

To make a development in nursing education, it’s necessary to evaluate the
processes of the clinical education and become informed about modern executive models. In this regard,
Competency Based Education Model (CBEM) is a new educational model that aims to reach desired
clinical role. This study aims to determine the effect of implementing competency-based education
model on nursing students’ clinical performance in Coronary Care Unit (CCU).
Materials & Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with post-test design; 34 senior nursing students,
who met the inclusion criteria, were selected through census and divided into two groups as control and
experimental. The control group received conventional education and the experiment group received
competency based education for their CCU course. The students’ clinical performance score was
measured through 3 researcher-made data collecting instrument (clinical performance assessment
checklist, self-report questionnaire and multiple choice test). The collected data was analyzed by SPSS
(16) software using descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square, independent t-test and MannWhitney U test).
Results: The results indicated that clinical performance of students in the experimental group was
significantly higher than students in the control group; both in terms of specific clinical performance
(P<0.001) and generic clinical performance (P=0.001).
Conclusion: Competency-based education model more than the conventional model improved the
students’ generic and specific clinical performance. Therefore, it is recommended that nursing
educational officials improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of clinical courses by taking
advantages of this educational model and modifying the nursing curriculum based on modern
educational strategies