NPs are held to the highest standards of advanced practice. They deliver current, evidence-based care and educate patients and caregivers.
The 10 Competency Domains
NONPF does not force institutions to use a specific curriculum, but its competencies give programs a roadmap and a way to measure students' abilities before graduation. The domains apply to every NP specialization, and each one contains more role-specific competencies underneath it.
NP education used to be knowledge-based: faculty observed students' clinical skills and marked them complete. Programs have since moved to competency-based education, which measures what students actually do.
- Knowledge for Nursing Practice
- Person-Centered Care
- Population Health. Graduates manage population health and show they understand the ethical, legal, and social factors affecting populations. NPs advocate for patients and build health promotion programs.
- Scholarship for Nursing Practice
- Quality and Safety
- Interprofessional Partnerships. Students learn to communicate and collaborate with the rest of the healthcare team to improve care. That means communicating with peers, identifying disparities and gaps in access, and practicing active listening with peers, patients, and families.
- Systems-Based Practice
- Information and Healthcare Technologies
- Professionalism
- Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development. NPs keep growing through professional development and self-care, and keep building leadership skills. Core behaviors include self-awareness, knowing how and when to access support systems, and understanding scope of practice as defined by the Consensus Model for APRNs.
These competencies are not yet standardized globally, though there is ongoing work to develop collaborative guidelines for NPs worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who sets the nurse practitioner core competencies? The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF). In 2022 NONPF revised its NP Role Core Competencies to align with the 2021 AACN Essentials (NONPF).
What are the 10 NP competency domains? Knowledge for Nursing Practice, Person-Centered Care, Population Health, Scholarship for Nursing Practice, Quality and Safety, Interprofessional Partnerships, Systems-Based Practice, Information and Healthcare Technologies, Professionalism, and Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development.
How do the NONPF competencies relate to the AACN Essentials? The NP Role Core Competencies are scaffolded from the AACN Essentials. They extend the Essentials' Level 2 (advanced) sub-competencies with role-specific expectations for nurse practitioners (AACN).
What is competency-based education for NPs? NP education has shifted from a knowledge-based model, where faculty observed a skill and marked it complete, to competency-based education, which measures what students can actually do in practice before they graduate.
Do all NP specialties use the same core competencies? Yes. The 10 domains apply to every NP specialization, and each domain contains more role-specific competencies underneath it. Specialty and population-focused competencies build on this shared foundation.
Does NONPF dictate a specific curriculum? No. NONPF does not require institutions to use a set curriculum. The competencies give programs a roadmap and a way to measure student readiness, while programs design their own coursework to meet them.