Competency Talk Is Cheap: Rethinking Global Standards in Nursing Education

Competency has become one of the most frequently invoked concepts in nursing education. Across curricula, accreditation standards, and scholarly discourse, it is presented as a solution to concerns about graduate readiness. Yet despite the proliferation of frameworks, the meaning, assessment, and application of competency remain inconsistent and unevenly applied. This commentary critiques the contemporary emphasis on competency, arguing that the lack of coherence in definition and implementation risks reducing it to rhetoric rather than reality. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of these frameworks. Despite years of discourse, few nursing programs had embedded pandemic-ready preparation. Nurses across both high- and low-resource settings were thrust into roles that exceeded their training, revealing the absence of unified standards and the limitations of existing approaches. Ultimately, the claim that we are “measuring competency” may provide reassurance but, without internationally coherent yet regionally adaptable standards, such claims risk remaining rhetorical. Coherence across nursing competency frameworks can be achieved through shared terminology, regional adaptation, and sustained international dialogue. Building on the World Health Organization's (2022) Global Competency and Outcomes Framework for Universal Health Coverage, this commentary proposes a practical path toward alignment without mandating uniformity. While the WHO framework provides an essential pathway, challenges in competency assessment and translation to practice remain. The commentary invites reflection on how nursing education can collaboratively shape feasible, contextually grounded solutions.