Competency, as a model for organizing the medical curriculum, should be conceived as the ability to mobilize, link, and deploy knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are needed for efficient and effective performance in the context of professional practice. Competency-based medical education should align teaching strategies, educational practices, learning opportunities and settings, evaluation system, and research activities with this organizational principle in the curriculum. The model emphasizes an active search for knowledge, integration of disciplines, interaction between theory and practice, teaching, and social integration, while placing the development of professional identity at the center of the learning experience. Initially, the model's construction encompasses the identification and definition of a set of competencies related to good medical practices. Next, the components of competency and performance levels need to be determined. Finally, educators must develop an evaluation program aimed primarily at the learning process (formative evaluation) and focused on the detection of knowledge, skills, and attitudes assimilated by students rather than on their classification within a normative group.
Medical Education; Professional Competency; Competency-Based Curriculum; Assessment of Competence
