Healthcare is a practical discipline oriented to professional competence. It must be developed through cognitive processes and practical operations to integrate and build nursing expertise, attitudes, and skills. Domestic and international education scholars emphasize that cognitive tests (paper-and-pencil tests) cannot properly validate learners’ professional competence in nursing. More so, students’ health practice competency cannot be accurately measured by paper-and-pencil tests. However, tests of this sort are still used in the current healthcare licensing examination and in most courses in Taiwan to assess students’ learning outcomes. Therefore, the Center was established to implement teaching and evaluation strategies to promote the evaluation of healthcare practice competency.

Furthermore, with the multi-entrance program and recurrent education policy implemented, technical and vocational education now emphasizes the need to strengthen students’ lack of specialized practical skills. In particular, it aims to continue linking students’ past experiences to acquire more advanced professional knowledge and skills and avoid duplication of learning and wasting students’ educational resources and time. Noteworthily, students with several years of work experience often join in the healthcare technical and vocational education. Thus, the University has established the Performance Examination Center for Healthcare Professional Competency to provide appropriate bridging and reinforcement teaching. Particularly, this program is believed to implement teaching strategies that promote the evaluation of healthcare practice competency.

Moreover, it is necessary to establish the above-mentioned program to control the quality of practical competencies before students enter the workplace. In addition, the program helps meet workplace needs and reduce the loss of graduates at the beginning of their employment. The Performance Examination Center will continue to promote the evaluation of various healthcare competencies and ensure a more reliable and effective competency evaluation model and strategy. Its setting will be conducive to teaching practical healthcare competency at the University. Further, this teaching strategy will help teachers evaluate students’ care competencies, identify their deficiencies during simulations, and reduce incidents that impair patients’ safety. In addition, it provides an avenue for technical and vocational students with work experience to have their professional learning achievements verified through clinical skills testing. This clinical skills verification can be developed into a basis for credit and increase the diversity of course evaluation. Ultimately, the Performance Examination Center for Healthcare Professional Competency is necessary for implementing competency-based healthcare professional education.