Education in surgery: competency-based training

Abstract

Competence-based training flourished in the 1980s in several spheres of education. The approach, however, was seen as focusing on units of competence that were too narrow and technically oriented for postgraduate training in the health professions. 'Competence-based approaches,' suggests Norris, 'tend to reduce job competence to atomised, observable behaviours, which may not embody competence in the sense of generalisable or holistic capability.' Saunders argued that 'competence-based systems embody a reductionist concept of work practice' and that 'the danger of reductionism may be more acute at the higher levels of qualification and their associated training.'