Carole Elledge, DNP, RN, AOCN®, clinical program specialist at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, TX, described the concept of nursing competencies with a kitchen metaphor: “It’s kind of like baking a cake. If you’re going to bake a cake, you need all the ingredients.” For nurses, she said, the ingredients of competency include not only hands-on clinical skills, but also an ability to see past the disease, compassion, critical thinking, self-motivation, patience and insight, leadership, a team approach, and more. “There’s much more to competency than just skills.”
