The Effect of Competency-Based Education on Medical and Nursing Students\u27 Academic Performance, Technical Skill Development, and Overall Satisfaction and Preparedness for Future Practice: An Integrative Literature Review

Purpose: This article provides an integrative review of competency-based education (CBE) in medical and nursing programs and examines the effect of CBE on students’ academic performance, technical skill development, and overall satisfaction and preparedness for future practice. Background: In recent decades, CBE has increasingly been discussed in medical and nursing education programs. The impact of the CBE curriculum on learning outcomes including academic performance, technical skill development, overall satisfaction, and preparedness for future practice has not been fully elucidated. Method: A review of the literature was conducted, and multiple databases were searched for studies that analyzed the impact of CBE on learning outcomes in medical and nursing program learners. Results: The overall trends in feedback showed that CBE was well-received by students, with high satisfaction scores reported. CBE was also shown to be equally or more effective than the traditional didactic model in developing students’ competencies and improving academic and clinical performance. Conclusion: Our comprehensive review of the literature suggests that competency-based education can be an effective framework that potentially outperforms traditional educational approaches on outcome measures related to clinical knowledge, technical skill, and/or clinical judgement