Abstract
The emergence of standardization as an approach to govern occupational groups and their work implies assurance of quality, or in some occupations, safety, of the services provided. Nursing competency standards gained support in the late twentieth century through the alignment of interests of regulatory, management, education, and research social worlds. Whilst these standards provided an assurance of consistency across a range of higher education institutions and health practice settings, the ‘work’ of producing competence remains hidden. In this chapter, the use of competency standards to produce ‘evidence’ of competence as an educational outcome for nursing students and graduates is explored. The systems and processes designed to assure a competent nurse consume an alarming quantity of resources, during a period of efficiency and effectiveness, leading the author to question the long-term sustainability of this approach in the education of nursing students.
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Grealish, L. (2015). Professional Standards in Curriculum Design: A Socio-Technical Analysis of Nursing Competency Standards. In: Kennedy, M., Billett, S., Gherardi, S., Grealish, L. (eds) Practice-based Learning in Higher Education. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9502-9_6
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