Digitising Competency Assessment for Nurses in Ireland
Axia Digital worked with Atlantic Technological University (ATU) to develop the first digital version of the National Competency Assessment Document (NCAD) for the department of Nursing at their Donegal campus in Letterkenny. The result is the My Competency Assessment Dashboard (or MyCAD) website.
The site is used by students of all years and has been adopted and embraced by all those involved in assessing students in hospitals and community settings. MyCAD mirrors the paper NCAD document, presenting content and processes in a way which users are familiar with.
Chris Peat, Chair of Axia Digital commented:
“Our technology platform has been developed over 20 years and it enables us to transform paper based assessment processes into digital ones. This transformation brings many benefits and crucially enables health professionals to focus on what matters, which is the practice development and assessment of nurses by streamlining the administration of the process. We’re delighted to have collaborated with ATU Donegal so that it has become the first University in Ireland where nurses are using an assessment document that they can access from their mobile phone.”
Challenges and Security
The project was executed at a time where confidence in digital systems in the Irish health sector was low due to the cyber attack on HSE (Ireland’s equivalent to the NHS) in 2021, which left health professionals doubting the safety and reliability of such systems. This presented a challenge for our team. As a company, Axia takes the security of our customer websites very seriously, and so every care was taken to ensure that the system we produced was secure.
Supporting Student Success Through Simplicity and Visibility
One of the key strengths of MyCAD is its ability to give students a clear, real-time view of their progress across clinical placements and academic requirements. The dashboard brings together essential information such as competencies achieved, placement status, and assessor feedback into a single, easy-to-navigate interface. This empowers students to take ownership of their development, stay organised, and engage more confidently with the assessment process.
ATU Donegal MyCAD Student Dashboard
Irish Education Award Winner
Axia’s efforts to produce the MyCAD website were recognised at the Irish Education Awards in April 2023. We were awarded Best Industry / Business-Academic Collaboration for our work with ATU’s Department of Nursing. MyCAD was described by the panel as “An excellent example of collaboration between academia and industry, taking innovative approach to a practical problem facing many students in placements, whether it be clinical or other.”
Dr Louise McBride, Head of Nursing and Healthcare at ATU, commented:
“The MyCAD E-portfolio project collaboration brings together academic, industry and our HSE clinical nursing partners to develop a cutting-edge online access dashboard for nursing students and staff for a competence assessment e-portfolio in our nursing education programmes. We’re delighted to see our efforts being acknowledged and these nominations are a testament of collaboration, commitment and success of ATU with HSE North West Nursing and Axia Digital.”
A dissemination event that was held soon after the award show galvanised interest in the digital NCAD from Universities across Ireland who also deliver Nursing programmes.
Read more about the project and the award here.
Expanding the MyCAD Rollout
Following the successful launch of MyCAD at ATU’s Donegal campus, the system was subsequently rolled out to their Mayo and St Angela’s campuses. This expansion ensured a seamless and consistent experience for users across the three campuses, enhancing the management of course assessments and competency tracking throughout multiple locations. More details about the rollout can be found here.
In addition to ATU, MyCAD has also been adopted by Munster Technological University (MTU), further demonstrating its flexibility and effectiveness in supporting higher education institutions across Ireland. MTU’s first-year nursing students began piloting MyCAD in March 2024 and, due to its success, the pilot was then expanded to include third-year students within two weeks. Read more about our work with MTU here.