Exploring the Utility of Entrustable Professional Activities as a Framework to Enhance Nurse Practitioner Education

Background: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are used in medical education in the assessment of clinical competence, but consideration of EPAs in nurse practitioner (NP) education is emerging. Problem: There are critical points in the NP educational trajectory when a student should demonstrate requisite knowledge and abilities. It can be challenging to assess and measure clinical proficiency in a way that can be clearly interpreted by students, faculty, and preceptors. Approach: NP faculty reviewed a set of medical EPAs that were linked with physician competencies to determine if they related to national NP competency areas and learning activities in their curriculum. Conclusions: Several NP competency areas (8 of 9) related to these EPAs, and the learning activities also related to multiple EPAs. Although further work would be needed to tailor EPAs to the NP role and link them specifically with NP competencies, EPAs may offer another valuable method for clinical evaluation of NP students.