Competencies : An Ethical Challenge for Nursing Education and Training

This editorial adresses a number of ethical issues regarding the use of competencies in nursing education, concerning both knowledge and expectations of the future healthcare professionals. The competency-based approach is a very valid one and is intended to be a particularly good way of adapting teaching and learning to practice. Nevertheless, two major precautions are: (1) to implement it properly; and (2) to use other tools that address student reflexivity more broadly, so as to develop the epistemology of the discipline and help to build the identity of the future professionals.