Utilizing role-play to support competency-based education in self-care management

• Nursing students must understand barriers to medication adherence and safety. • Role play supports competency development in promotion of patient self-care. • This activity improved identification of barriers to medication adherence. As nursing education transitions to align with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) update Essentials (2021), faculty must implement innovative teaching strategies that support competency-based education (CBE). Among these competencies, promoting self-care management is essential for empowering patients in medication adherence which remains a significant healthcare challenge. An innovative role-play activity was developed and implemented to foster competency in promoting self-care management. Students, acting as patients, family members, and nurses, practiced identifying barriers to medication adherence and safety concerns. This project demonstrates the efficacy of prop-enhanced role-play in improving identification of safety concerns and barriers to medication adherence and thereby supporting competency in promoting self-care management. By actively engaging in patient, family, and nurse roles, students not only strengthened their ability to identify and address safety concerns and medication adherence barriers, but also developed a deeper understanding of patient, family and nurse perspectives. These results support the implementation of similar innovative role-play methods into CBE curricula to better prepare students for patient centered care.