The Transition From Expert to Novice and Back to Expert: Ensuring Competent and Safe Practice

T ransitioning from an expert to novice requires critically exploring the requirements to ensure competency and safe practice in the new field of practice. Expert clinicians build substantial knowledge bases allowing them to view situations differently than novice clinicians. The expert clinician also organizes and interprets data succinctly without bias. Clinical expertise is more than an accumulation of knowledge, experience, and time spent with patient populations in the field of practice. Expert clinicians excel in their domain of practice. Literature to date has demonstrated clinical expertise in one field does not translate to expertise and/or competence in another field of practice. Clinical expertise develops through deliberate practice and self-regulation. Expert clinicians can redirect their thought process when dealing with a complex issue due to not engaging in situational bias and being aware of all the possibilities, ensuring that an optimal outcome is reached. The Benner novice-to-expert model describes 5 levels that can be applied to any healthcare professional practice domain: novice, advance beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition states there are constant development of skills and performance and translational phases for the learner as they go through each stage from novice to expert. As described by Benner, expert clinicians possess the ability to prioritize automatically the care required for thepatient and/or patients through experiential learning.