Developing competency based education to advance careers of front line health workers

Efforts to advance the competencies and careers of front line health employees are hampered by employee difficulties in missing work or leaving jobs and families to gain formal education. A promising approach to address this challenge is Accredited Work-Based Learning (AWBL) which involves partnerships between health care employer organizations and educational institutions; it uses competency based learning objectives to improve career skills and increase career ladder potential in frontline health care workers. Educational tools based upon real employee work can be used to achieve learning objectives in employer/employee identified areas. Example competencies that can be obtained through AWBL areas include, but are not limited to, basic public health concepts, program evaluation, group facilitation, and writing skills. A program to improve, to assess, and to reward competency achievement through accredited work-based learning is being developed by Northern Arizona University and the Navajo Area Indian Health Service and signals a promising new direction for the Indian Health Service to advance the careers of entry level health care employees. The health organization goals to be achieved from work-based learning include the recruitment and retention of employees in the health work force, increased skills of front line health employees, and increased quality of health care. The program is also creating new models of education for American universities and colleges.