COMET Nursing Education BW
Measuring and Developing Professional Competencies in Nursing Education
Relevance of the Research Project
With the introduction of generalist nursing education on 1 January 2020, a fundamental paradigm shift was initiated in vocational nursing education in Germany. Throughout the reform process, it has become clear that the professional qualification of practice educators (instructor and learning process facilitator of nursing practice), as well as the coordination of various practical learning environments, require both personnel and structural concepts to ensure the quality of training. At present, there is no competence model that places trainees’ cognitive and reflective learning processes at the centre of vocational pedagogy. Additionally no framework for illustrating training quality is available.
The participatory project COMET Nursing Education BW, based at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, responds to these challenges by exploring innovative ways of increasing transparency in competence development among trainees, teaching staff and practice educators involved in the new generalist nursing education programme.
The project is being conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Baden-Württemberg and eight public nursing schools – two from each of the federal state’s four administrative districts – involving a total of 23 teachers, 24 practice educators and more than 900 trainees.
Aims of COMET Nursing Education BW
Representing nursing schools in Baden-Württemberg, the aim is to make the development of trainees' competences transparent across levels of action-guiding, action-explaining and action-reflective competence. The competence development and assessment model can serve as a didactic framework to promote competence-oriented teaching, supervision, learning and assessment. From this, the following sub-goals are derived.:
Common understanding of teaching, learning and assessment
- Learning tasks as a bridge between theory and practice
- Supporting and guiding reflective learning processes
- Greater security for trainees through transparent assessment criteria
Individual and continuous assessment of competences
- The COMET model as a tool for assessing competence levels
- Constructive feedback on the current stage of training
- Consistent evaluation of competence development
Strengthening effective cooperation between learning locations
- Developing a shared understanding of education in nursing
- Transparency of enabling or constraining factors
- Synergies and training quality through collaborative networking
By actively involving all educators throughout the project, evidence-based approaches to vocational education are jointly developed and piloted. Ongoing professional dialogue between academic and practice-based teaching staff aims to enhance the overall quality of training in nursing education.
We welcome questions, suggestions and opportunities for collaboration!
Please contact: projekt-sabp-comet[at]hs-esslingen.de
Project Lead:
Prof. Dr. phil. Mechthild Löwenstein, Professorin für Pflegepädagogik
Academic Staff Members:
Laura Winter, Pflegewissenschaft M. A., Pflegepädagogik B. A.
Paula Zahl, Soziale Arbeit
Funding period: 15.10.2024 – 14.10.2027
Funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Baden-Württemberg
In collaboration with:
Fritz-Ruoff-Schule, Nürtingen
Geschwister-Scholl-Schule, Leutkirch im Allgäu
Gewerbliche und Hauswirtschaftlich-Sozialpflegerische Schulen, Emmendingen
Käthe-Kollwitz-Schule, Bruchsal
Louise-Otto-Peters-Schule, Hockenheim
Maria-von-Linden-Schule, Heidenheim an der Brenz
Mettnau-Schule, Radolfzell am Bodensee
Valckenburgschule, Ulm
Interested? Apply now! for the wintersemester 2025/2026
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