Mary Douglass Smith
Clinical skill competency assessment is a fundamental component of ensuring that healthcare professionals can safely and effectively perform the skills required in clinical practice. Healthcare organizations, accrediting agencies, and regulatory bodies require competency assessment; however, substantial variation exists in the models and frameworks used to guide these assessments across professions and organizations. While numerous competency frameworks have been described in the literature, no comprehensive review has mapped their use across nursing and allied health professions. The purpose of this Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review is to identify, map, and compare the models and frameworks used to assess clinical skill competency among licensed nursing and allied health professionals practicing in healthcare settings. The review will include studies conducted in hospitals, integrated health systems, ambulatory care settings, specialty hospitals, outpatient clinics, and other clinical practice environments. Studies focused exclusively on physicians, physician trainees, and pre-licensure healthcare professional students will be excluded to maintain a focused scope and enable meaningful comparisons among professions with similar workplace competency assessment practices. The review will be conducted using JBI methodology and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A comprehensive search of PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, and PsycINFO will identify relevant literature. Two independent reviewers will complete study screening and data extraction, with a third reviewer resolving disagreements. Extracted data will be synthesized using descriptive statistics and narrative analysis to characterize the competency assessment frameworks identified, the healthcare professions and settings in which they are applied, assessment methods, and reported outcomes. This review is expected to produce the first comprehensive mapping of clinical skill competency assessment models and frameworks across nursing and allied health professions. Findings will identify commonly used frameworks, compare their characteristics and applications, highlight similarities and differences across disciplines, and identify gaps in the literature. The results will provide healthcare educators, researchers, and healthcare organizations with an evidence-informed resource to support competency program development, improve consistency in competency assessment practices, and guide future research in clinical competency assessment.