The first session of virtual panel discussion series "Elevating Workforce Excellence Through Strategic Development" in partnership with the American Hospital Association— hosted in partnership with StaffGarden by Ascend Learning— focused on improving onboarding, standardizing competency assessments, and enhancing clinical judgment across healthcare systems.
Featuring Parkview Health, the conversation explored how digital competency platforms are revolutionizing workforce development across health systems.
The full AHA Affinity Forum Session One recording is available to watch now.
Despite a decline from pandemic-era peaks, nurse turnover remains high. This churn creates gaps in clinical knowledge, disrupts team cohesion, and places pressure on onboarding and training processes. Inconsistent preceptor training and assessment methods further hinder clinical readiness.
Traditional paper-based competency tracking systems are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of health systems. Illegible handwriting, missing pages, rips and spills elevate risks. Paper-based competencies thus lack transparency, are difficult to scale, and result in inconsistent assessments.
As explained by Larissa Africa, VP of Healthcare Workforce Solutions at StaffGarden by Ascend Learning, the quality challenge stems from:
• Procedure-based assessments that focus on regulatory checklists but fail to evaluate clinical decision-making.
• Over-reliance on preceptors without structured frameworks, leading to uneven development.
• Variation in performance validation across units, with educational content often prioritized over practical competency.
The efficiency challenge is equally pressing:
• Missed opportunities for timely feedback result from the fact that manual documentation typically occurs at the end of orientation.
• Time-based onboarding overlooks individual performance of competencies and skills.
Digital competency solutions remedy these challenges by organizing objectives, communicating and standardizing expectations, and providing structure. Trina Rayle, Manager of Nursing Professional Development at Parkview Health, emphasized that “we want all of our nurses practicing with the latest evidence at their fingertips.”
Parkview Health, serving 22 counties across Indiana and Ohio, shared its experience implementing StaffGarden’s digital competency platform across 14 hospitals. Led by Rayle, Parkview’s approach to the program’s system-wide rollout enabled:
• Standardization of competencies across facilities
• Real-time tracking of nurse performance
• Structured preceptor training to ensure consistency.
• Scalability to support organizational growth.
Rayle described a two-tiered approach to preceptor preparation:
1. System-level, theory-based training on providing feedback, recognizing orientee faltering, and intervening professionally.
2. Unit-level training on digital competency platform mechanics and content navigation.
All materials are digitally linked and centrally managed, allowing for rapid updates and consistent access. Precepting is treated as shared governance committee work— not just training— making it easier to engage and support participants.
“Preceptor preparation is never a one-and-done thing. It requires constant communication, education, and support,” Rayle pointed out.
Competency isn’t just about checking boxes. It’s about integrating knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment.
As Africa noted, clinical excellence requires moving beyond procedural checklists to assess critical thinking and decision-making, a complex process made possible through digitization. Rayle added that nurses who understand the “why” behind their actions are more likely to retain knowledge and act proactively, reducing response times and improving patient outcomes.
With a digital platform, clinical judgment is elevated because “you’re actually getting to validate them in real time as they’re providing care to real patients,” explained Rayle.
Digital platforms also support:
• Accessibility of internal performance metrics for management and regulatory reporting.
• Standardization across units, ensuring safety and quality alignment.
• Scalability of onboarding and standardization across diverse facilities.
“Safety and quality are in alignment when you do the standardization work… our small community critical care has access to the same information as our large tertiary care facilities,” explained Rayle, “[and] as we continue to grow, we can meet the needs of everyone in our health system.”
Jenna Lloyd Fisher, VP of Clinical Excellence at StaffGarden by Ascend Learning, outlined four key strategies for successful adoption:
1. Strategic Alignment: Ensure competency programs support organizational goals.
2. Workforce Engagement: Involve bedside nurses and preceptors early in the process.
3. Efficiency & Automation: Replace manual processes with streamlined digital workflows.
4. Data-Driven Insights: Use performance data to personalize onboarding and identify gaps.
To gain stakeholder buy-in and keep them engaged, it's important to make a strong case for the new system well before implementation begins, incorporating testing and feedback throughout the process. As Rayle put it, “there’s no such thing as overcommunicating when you’re rolling out something like this.”
Parkview Health folded the competency program build process into their shared governance initiative— “there’s no better way to get them to buy into it than if they helped create it,” Rayle added. “We added more touchpoints for the orientee to get into the platform, review the material themselves, see the objectives… make sure the right people are accessing the right information at the right time.”
The panelists noted several ways in which digitization transforms competency development:
• Onboarding is individualized based on performance, not time.
• Workforce intelligence enables transparency of performance and onboarding acceleration.
• Competency data informs education, practice, and policy.
• Nurses are empowered to define their professional identity and practice at the top of their license.
Accelerated onboarding— made possible by digital competency development— allows nurses to move through competencies “at a pace where we can move them into caring for their full patient load without compromising on the quality and integrity of the onboarding,” said Fisher.
Digitization is a transformative force in building a resilient, competent, and supported clinical workforce. By integrating digital solutions with strategic planning and stakeholder engagement, healthcare organizations can elevate both clinical excellence and workforce satisfaction.
As Elisa Arespacochaga of AHA concluded, this work is about more than compliance— it’s about nurturing a resilient, capable, and confident nursing workforce. “This is about supporting our nurses from the bedside into leadership and really making sure they have everything they need… helping them define that professional identity.”
Watch the full AHA Affinity Forum Session One recording now.
Future AHA Forum sessions will feature leaders from Ohio Health and Inova Health System, continuing the conversation on transforming clinical workforce development.
Registration for upcoming sessions is open now.
As a leader in ensuring quality, safety, and efficiency in patient care, your role is vital. Sign up to receive Insights in your inbox and get monthly updates, expert perspectives, and practical information to empower your team and elevate patient care.
Ready for a Modern Approach to Clinical Success?
