The American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Nursing Skills Competency Program provides a tool for employers and individual nurses to identify educational programs that are appropriately designed to validate nursing skills and skill sets. Nurses benefit from this new method of substantiating their ability to perform a given skill, providing them a competitive edge in obtaining and retaining positions. Employers and healthcare consumers are better able to compare and judge the quality of skills validation programs that nurses attend, giving them confidence that the nurses meet competency requirements.

Continued competency in nursing is a frequent concern for employers, staff, and consumers. These concerns have led to heightened awareness of and demand for validation of the patient care skills of healthcare workers. Until now there has been no reliable way for the consumer, the employer, or regulatory bodies to know the appropriateness or quality of the particular education and training courses the nurse attends.

ANCC's Nursing Skills Competency Program addresses concerns regarding competency of the nurse by validating that a skills program meets national design standards. It offers a national performance benchmark for selecting continuing education and skills training courses for nurses. Nurses can validate and claim continued proficiency in their specialized skills.

The ANCC Nursing Skills Competency Program is for any organization that offers high quality education programs for nurses.

• A hospital can use this accreditation to substantiate the skills of its nurses to accrediting bodies, third-party payers, and consumers.
• Manufacturers or distributors of commercial healthcare products can communicate their commitment to ensure appropriate use of their products by the healthcare provider.
• Universities and schools of nursing can demonstrate the skills of graduating nursing students or may use this accreditation to validate nurse refresher courses or skills taught in simulation labs.
• State Nurses Associations can enhance the portability of their members by providing them and their current or prospective employer evidence of completion of a nationally accredited skills competency course.

An organization interested in obtaining ANCC Nursing Skills Competency Accreditation must complete an application describing its nursing education program. The organization applying for Nursing Skills Competency Accreditation is expected to meet all ANCC Accreditation Program educational design criteria and all Nursing Skills Competency Program criteria.

There is a difference between the ANCC accreditation of providers of continuing nursing education and the ANCC accreditation of Nursing Skills Competency Programs. ANCC accredits providers of continuing nursing education activities. The ANCC Nursing Skills Competency Program accredits the skills competency course. The criteria for accreditation of a nursing skills competency program differ from other ANCC accreditation criteria.

In some ways, the criteria for accreditation of a skills competency program are more rigorous than criteria for accreditation of a provider of continuing nursing education. For example, the identification of qualifications of faculty must be defended and the selection of specific faculty members must be defended. Additionally, it is expected that the reliability of the preceptors and faculty will also be established.

Each application submitted will be reviewed by a review panel consisting of experts in educational design and experts in the content area addressed by the skills competency program. ANCC Accreditation of a Nursing Skills Competency program is typically granted for two years, with the option to apply for renewal after the initial accreditation period.