Developing bariatric population-specific competency for nurses

The likely increased use of bariatric surgery will heighten the demand for competent postoperative nursing care in more health-care settings across the country. This trend leads to the question of how we can best prepare nurses to care for bariatric surgery patients. A bariatric population-specific competency for nurses is one answer that guides training and assessment. This paper describes an evidence-based bariatric competency for nurses that could supplement existing clinical care practices for any general abdominal surgery patients, provide the basis for developing competency-based training programs for nurses caring for bariatric patients, and be used as a generic template that can be customized for preceptors' use in selected centers.