• To recognise the importance of developing specific competencies for specialist roles
• To learn about rheumatology nurse specialists’ views and experiences of a competency framework
• To consider the potential benefits and areas for improvement in competency frameworks for nurses
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) competency framework for rheumatology nurses was developed in 2020. As part of the framework proposal, a service evaluation was planned following the framework’s roll-out to determine its usefulness and acceptability. The aim of this evaluation was to explore rheumatology nurse specialists’ answers to the research question: ‘What was your experience of using the RCN’s rheumatology competency framework?’ A total of 14 rheumatology nurse specialists were interviewed and shared their opinions regarding the competency framework. Five themes were identified: personal usage; benefits to managers; inequalities and inequity in nursing; ideas for improvement; and general properties. The findings of this evaluation demonstrated the value of the framework, which enabled rheumatology nurse specialists to document the competency level they were working at and to identify their future training needs.
Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2024.e12111
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestPolly Livermore is partially funded by the Great Ormond Street Hospital National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and holds a personal post-doctoral fellowship with the NIHR
Finney D, Cornell P, Howie L et al (2024) Evaluating a competency framework for rheumatology nurses. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2024.e12111
AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank the competency working group, external reviewers and the Royal College of Nursing for supporting this article
Published online: 22 January 2024
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