Core Competencies for Health Care Professionals: What Medicine, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, and Physiotherapy Share

Journal of Allied Health, Summer 2006 by Verma, Sarita, Paterson, Margo, Medves, Jennifer

Discipline-specific Competencies

In accordance with the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA) of Ontario, all health regulatory colleges must have a program to ensure quality assurance. That requirement has lead to the delineation of specific competencies and a number of indicators to assist in the outcome-measurement process. Regulatory colleges are very interested in mechanisms to monitor performance. The prospects for 360-degree measurements are potentially very valuable to them.

MEDICINE

In 1990, a collaborative project was launched to determine what the people of Ontario expected of their physicians and how the programs that prepared future physicians should be changed in response. The project, called Educating Future Physicians for Ontario (EFPO), brought together the five Ontario medical schools and a number of stakeholder groups to identify the key expectations of society from learner-physicians. EFPO was followed by the Skills for the New Millennium: CanMEDs 2000 Project,16 which subsequently delineated the competency framework for seven roles for Royal College Specialties, and four principles were enunciated by the College of Family Physicians. These seven roles are defined as follows, with a number of competencies listed in parentheses associated with each role:

1. Medical expert (4)

2. Communicator (7)

3. Collaborator (3)

4. Manager (4)

5. Health advocate (3)

6. Scholar (5)

7. Professional (4)

These competencies are delineated by the original CanMEDS framework in detail. For example, professional states that the resident will:

i) demonstrate integrity, honesty, and compassion in delivery of the highest quality of care; ii) demonstrate appropriate personal and interpersonal professional behaviors; iii) demonstrate awareness of the role and responsibilities of the profession within society; and iv) develop and demonstrate use of a framework for recognizing and dealing with ethical issues in clinical and/or research practice including truth telling, consent, conflict of interest, resource allocation, and end-of-life care.16

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

In 1999, an expert working group of occupational therapists was formed to develop the initial draft of Essential Competencies of Practice,17 which were further validated and finalized in 2000 after three rounds of consultations. In 2002, the Association of Canadian Occupational Therapy Regulatory Organization (ACOTRO) developed specific performance indicators for the essential competencies, which were reviewed by a series of regional consultations. A national survey was conducted to confirm the relevance and appropriateness of the essential competencies. Final dissemination was approved in June 2003.

The seven broad units identified for occupational therapists are listed below, with associated categories of competencies noted in parentheses:

1. Assumes professional responsibility (6)

2. Demonstrates practice knowledge (3)

3. Utilizes a practice process (7)

4. Thinks critically (4)

5. Communicates effectively (6)

6. Engages in professional development (1)