The CONFERD-HP Guideline has now officially been entered into the EQUATOR Network library of reporting guidelines.
The entry can be viewed at: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/conferd-hp-recommendations-for-reporting-competency-framework-development-in-health-professions/
The CONFERD-HP guideline has been published! Now available free and open-access in the BJS.
https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bjs/znac394/6840357
A must-read for those who develop, use, and/or publish competency frameworks in health professions, the guideline was developed by an international expert panel.
A good place to start is this scoping review, which provides an overview of how competency frameworks have been developed in the health professions since the 1970s:
Next, two systematic reviews from Breanna Lepre and Nicole Murray, which explore the role of stakeholders in developing competency frameworks, and specifically patients and the public:
Next up, a conceptual framework which utilises systems thinking to structure exploration and understanding of practice, which we suggest is complex and contextual:
Now armed with these historical perspectives and awareness of gaps in current approaches, comes the practical “how to make a competency framework” publication. This paper provides a synthesis of existing development guidance, combined with the conceptual framework outlined above, and a furthering of knowledge informed by mixed-methods research approaches, approaches to qualitative “rigour”, and other developments:
If you wish to read the existing guidance on developing frameworks, there is a summary table provided in the first scoping review (Table 1, p915-917).
Specific guidance on methods that may be used during the development process is often generic base don method, however, specific insights from the competency framework development process are beginning to emerge:
Generic methodological guidance that may be useful includes:
Reporting of the development process has historically been lacking in detail required to make decisions around utility and validity. The CONFERD-HP recommendations for reporting COmpeteNcy FramEwoRk Development in health professions provides an outline of the essential items that should be reported when discussing the development of a competency framework in the health professions.
CONFERD-HP endorsement by journals is typically exemplified by a statement in the journal’s Instructions to Authors indicating the journal’s support of CONFERD-HP, typically in the form of a recommendation to authors to adhere to the CONFERD-HP checklist in their manuscripts reporting competency framework development in healthcare professions.
If you would like to improve the reporting completeness competency framework development papers in your journals, one of the best ways is to endorse the CONFERD-HP Statement.
Step 1
Include mention of the CONFERD-HP Guideline and reference the CONFERD-HP website in your journal’s instructions to authors for reporting of manuscripts describing competency framework development, or in the organization’s resource section
Our suggested text to include in journal’s instructions for authors is as follows:
"[journal name] requires a completed CONFERD-HP checklist as a condition of submission when reporting the development of a competency framework in the health professions. Templates for these can be found here or on the CONFERD-HP website. At minimum, your article should report the content addressed by each item of the checklist. Meeting these basic reporting requirements will greatly improve the value of your manuscript and may enhance its chances for eventual publication." Step 2
Contact us and we will add you to our endorsers list – simply have the Editor or Editor-in-Chief email us, and confirm the journal name.
Step 3
Write an editorial in the journal to this effect along with the journal’s policy on helping to improve the quality of competency framework development papers.
Additional resources to help journals develop editorial policies around reporting guidelines can be found on the EQUATOR Network website
When referring to the CONFERD-HP Guideline, we recommend using journal article citations rather than referring to the CONFERD-HP website. If you are not already using a journal article citation, we recommend that you cite one of the original publications of the guideline.
Alan M Batt, Walter Tavares, Tanya Horsley, Jessica V Rich, Brett Williams, the CONFERD-HP Collaborators, CONFERD-HP: recommendations for reporting COmpeteNcy FramEwoRk Development in health professions, British Journal of Surgery, 2022; znac394, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znac394
The Recommendations for reporting COmpeteNcy FramEwoRk Development in Health Professions and the CONFERD-HP Explanation and Elaboration document are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The CONFERD-HP EChecklist document is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
After the completion of two virtual workshops with expert panel members this month, the CONFERD-HP Guideline has been drafted, and is now undergoing a final review by the expert panel.
The guideline consists of 20 items intended to guide the essential items that should be reported when describing the development of competency frameworks in the healthcare professions. These items encompass the following domains: basic information (e.g., title); background information (e.g., purpose); development process (e.g., methods); testing; funding and conflicts of interest.
Since our last post, the CONFERD-HP study has been conducted. We undertook a three-round eDelphi study, and have produced a draft 21-item reporting guideline based on expert consensus.
This draft will now be discussed at two consensus meetings in November 2021, with the final guideline expected to be released before the end of the year.
The CONFERD-HP study received ethics approval today from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee.
We are now ready to enrol experts into the e-Delphi study and begin the development of the guideline!
CONFERD was today officially registered as a reporting guideline under development with the EQUATOR Network.
You can view the registration here: https://www.equator-network.org/library/reporting-guidelines-under-development/reporting-guidelines-under-development-for-other-study-designs/#CONFERD
