Continuing Competency for Nursing Licensure

Professional licensure, including nursing licensure, traditionally has focused on entry competencies and core requirements for general nursing. Consumers and patient advocates expressed rising concerns during the past decade about professional competency at two other points: continuing competence after years of practice and competence after leaving the profession for years and then returning to the practice. Today the policies and practices among the boards of nursing are changing to ensure the ongoing competence of nurses. The boards are struggling with many challenges to meet this mandate. from developing the evidence to identify the effectiveness of strategies, to the increasing diversity in the expertise of experienced nurses, especially advanced practice nurses.