Skills for Health National Occupational Standards
National Occupational Standards (NOS) describe what individuals need to know and do to carry out work activity. They provide descriptors of performance criteria to be met and the knowledge and understanding required to undertake work activities successfully.
Each individual competence covers:
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work activities that need to be carried out to achieve a particular purpose
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quality standards to which these activities need to be performed
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the knowledge and skills people need to carry out the activities.
Put together, the Skills for Health competences meet the key aim of health care services (to promote, maintain and improve health), with each competence focusing on an individual function needed to deliver that key aim. This means that each competence provides an objective description of what needs to happen and the underpinning knowledge to support that function, rather than focusing on where it is being done or by whom.
