Defining a competency framework for health and social professionals to promote healthy ageing throughout the lifespan: an international Delphi study

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: The promotion of healthy ageing has become a priority in most parts of the world, and it should be promoted at all ages. However, baseline training of health and social professionals is currently not adequately tailored to face these challenges. This paper reports the results of a Delphi study conducted to reach expert agreement about health and social professionals’ competencies to promote healthy ageing throughout the lifespan within the SIENHA project. Materials and Methods: This study was developed following the CREDES standards. The initial version of the competence framework was based on the results of a scoping review and built following the CanMEDS model. The expert panel consisted of a purposive sample of twenty-two experts in healthy ageing with diverse academic and clinical backgrounds, fields and years of expertise from seven European countries. Agreement was reached after three rounds. Results: The final framework consisted of a set of 18 key competencies and 80 enabling competencies distributed across six domains. Conclusions: The SIENHA competence framework for healthy ageing may help students, and educators, to enrich their learning, and the academic content of their subjects or/and programmes and incentivize innovation.