The effect of competency-based education on clinical performance of health care providers: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of competency-based education on the clinical performance of health care providers.

Background: Having in mind the importance of developing an intervention to enhance the clinical performance of health care providers, the researchers carried out the present study to investigate the effect of competency-based education on the clinical performance of health care providers.

Methods: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis carried out by searching six international electronic databases including PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ProQuest, Scopus and Google Scholar, as well as two national electronic databases including IranMedex and SID. The studies relevant to the research aims were included in the study. To assess the quality of the studies, the Cochrane Collaboration's Risk of Bias Tool was used.

Results: Based on the random effects model, competency-based education could enhance the clinical performance of the health care providers in the intervention group compared with that of the control group (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -2.717, 95% CI: -3.722 to -1.712). However, more recent studies have shown that competency-based education has little effect on clinical performance (β = -.255, 95% CI: -0.319 to -0.192, P < .001).

Conclusion: Competency-based education can enhance the clinical performance of health care providers. However, there is increasing concern over the attenuation of the positive effect of competency-based education on the clinical performance of health care providers, which deserves further studies.

Keywords: clinical competence; competency-based education; health care provider; meta-analysis; systematic review nursing.