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As the business environment becomes more turbulent, firms ponder how to become more flexible in reallocating or reconfiguring resources, processes, and strategies to respond more efficiently and effectively. In this context, the question of whether and how information technology (IT) can support strategic flexibility remains unresolved. This paper theorizes that firms that use IT to support core competencies will experience improved strategic flexibility, which may enhance their performance. It further theorizes that these effects are contingent on the form and nature of the firm's IT infrastructure, as well as its type of ownership - state-owned or private. Using data from a matched survey of IT and business executives in 148 Chinese manufacturing firms, we reveal positive, significant links between IT support for core competencies and strategic flexibility, and between strategic flexibility and firm performance. The findings further show that the effect of IT support for core competencies on performance is partially mediated by strategic flexibility, and that IT infrastructure positively moderates the link between IT support for core competencies and strategic flexibility. We also demonstrate that state-owned firms are less likely to apply IT applications to collect and analyse market information and thus surrender opportunities for achieving strategic flexibility and stronger firm performance.

Understanding the core competencies of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students is vital for designing ESP curricula and refining methodologies. This study sought to comprehensively assess the core competencies of Business English students in Chinese higher vocational colleges (HVCs). A questionnaire survey was conducted among 394 Business English students from five HVCs. The survey evaluated core competencies across gender and academic grades using a model comprisinging four primary dimensions and twelve sub-modules. The results revealed significant disparities in core competency development among Business English students, particularly across gender and academic grades within the specified competence indicator dimensions. These findings highlight the need to enhance in the core competencies of these students, indicating current deficienciess in their development. The identified disparities and areas for improvement in core competencies provide valuable insights for educators and institutions to customize teaching methodologies and improve curriculum design, better addressing the needs of Business English students in HVCs.

Studies of gender disparity in surgical training have yielded conflicting results. We hypothesize that there is no influence of gender on resident self-evaluation Milestone (SEM) scores and those assigned by the Clinical Competency Committee (CCC). 42 residents (25 male & 17 female) and faculty completed 300 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Milestone evaluations over a 4-year period. Two-way ANOVA, intraclass correlations coefficients, and general linear mixed models were used for analysis. CCC Milestone scores from 150 evaluations, 51 (34%) for female residents and 99 (66%) for male residents, were compared to corresponding SEM scores. There is a high interrater reliability (self vs. CCC). There was a significant increase in scores with advancing PGY levels (p < 0.001). No effect of gender on Milestones scores (p > 0.05) was noted. We found no significant differences in Milestones scores between male and female residents as determined by the CCC. Both scores improved significantly as residents progressed in training. •No differences in surgical resident self-assessed Milestones scores and Clinical Competency Committee evaluations when stratified by gender.•Milestone scores increased with experience as expected.•Providing new trainees with early mentoring and coaching is essential

Women’s health care has evolved significantly since it was first acknowledged as an integral part of internal medicine training more than two decades ago. To update and clarify core competencies in sex- and gender-based women’s health for general internists, the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Women and Medicine Commission prepared the following Position Paper, approved by the SGIM council in 2023. Competencies were developed using several sources, including the 2021 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Program Requirements for Internal Medicine and the 2023 American Board of Internal Medicine Certification Examination Blueprint. These competencies are relevant to the care of patients who identify as women, as well as gender-diverse individuals to whom these principles apply. They align with pivotal advances in women’s health and acknowledge the changing context of patients’ lives, reaffirming the role of general internal medicine physicians in providing comprehensive care to women.

Under the dual impetus of industrial upgrading and higher education quality enhancement, it has become a common consensus to construct a student competency evaluation tool that can reflect the entire “teaching–learning–application” chain. However, existing studies remain insufficient in terms of system integrity and quantitative operability. Guided by the CIPP evaluation model (Context–Input–Process–Product), this study follows the logical progression of “context–input–process–output.” Through a combination of literature review, expert interviews, and the Delphi method, an initial set of indicators was developed. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was then employed to determine indicator weights, and a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation approach was integrated to construct the quantitative model. The results indicate that the established system effectively balances process monitoring and outcome orientation, emphasizing university–industry collaboration, authentic learning contexts, and ability transferability, while demonstrating strong interpretability and diagnostic value. The final framework includes 4 primary indicators, 11 secondary indicators, and 68 tertiary indicators. The expert authority coefficients for the two Delphi rounds were 0.840 and 0.845, respectively, with Kendall’s coordination coefficients of 0.182 and 0.244. The AHP consistency test yielded CR < 0.1, confirming reliability. Using a sample of 132 students from the 2019 cohort of the Mechanical Engineering program at a “Double First-Class” university, model application results showed that 79.6% of students achieved an overall competency level of “good” or above. Among the first-level dimensions, the expected values of process evaluation and input evaluation outperformed those of context evaluation and output evaluation, suggesting the need to further strengthen institutional reputation building and graduate quality feedback mechanisms. The findings demonstrate that the proposed indicator system and evaluation model can effectively mitigate ambiguity and subjectivity in competency assessment. It possesses high applicability and promotional value in supporting teaching quality diagnostics, talent training program optimization, and deep university–industry collaboration.

Background The development of nursing interns’ fundamental competencies should be a top focus because they represent an essential reserve for nursing professionals. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between spiritual care-giving competency (SCG) and nursing core competencies (NCC) among Chinese nursing interns, adopting a competency-based education (CBE) perspective, additionally, the study aims to examine how emotional intelligence (EI) serves as a mediator in this relationship. Methods A nationwide online survey was completed by 1811 Chinese nursing interns at vocational colleges between June and July 2022 as part of a multi-site, cross-sectional, web-based study. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and competencies inventory for the registered nurse questionnaire (CIRN), the Chinese version of the spiritual care-giving scale questionnaire (C-SCGS), and the Chinese version of the Wong and Law EI scale questionnaire (WLEIS-C). Means, standard deviations, t -tests, one-way ANOVA analysis, and Pearson’s production correlation coefficients were calculated using IBM SPSS25.0 software. Mediated effect tests and studies utilizing the process plug-in SPSS developed by Hayes. Results The NCCs of college nursing interns were related to whether working as student leaders, whether have a better self-learning evaluation level, whether a college nursing intern with good interpersonal relationship, and whether they intend to engage in the nursing profession in the future. The scores of NCC, EI, and SCG were (156.43±23.14), (61.55±9.10), and (167.64±20.52) respectively. There were positive correlations among SCG ( r = 0.402), EI ( r = 0.506), and NCC. The partial mediating effect of EI between SCG and NCC was 0.127, accounting for 36.29% of the total results. Conclusion The average levels of Chinese college nursing interns’ NCC and SCG were at a moderate level. EI is mediating between SCG and NCC in Chinese nursing interns. This new perspective shows that developing and improving SCG and EI may improve NCC. We suggest modifying the nurse curriculum and instruction to strengthen NCC and integrating SCG and EI management into the nursing curriculum.

This study aims to evaluate the effect of team-based learning on the core competence of nursing students compared with traditional teaching methods. In recent years, team-based learning has been widely used as a learning and teaching method in the world. Not only the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes, but also the core competence is necessary to cope with various clinical situations for nursing students. However, the effect of this new teaching method on core competence of nursing students is not consistent. The study was designed according to the preferred reporting entries guidelines statement for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and population, intervention, comparison, outcome and study. Data were collected from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and Scopus. The quality of studies was assessed using “The Newcastle Ottawa scale”. A random-effect model of meta-analyses was conducted to generate pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) for core competence using Rev Man 5.4.1 software and STATASE 15. Moreover, subgroup, heterogeneity, sensitivity and publication bias analyses were conducted. A total of 14 articles with 1942 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the traditional pedagogy among nursing students, team-based learning pedagogy significantly increased theoretical performance, professional effects (self-directed learning ability and communication ability) but did not affect practice skills. In addition, one study found that learning attitudes were not improved in students with high or low academic performance. This might mean that the teaching model should be implemented for a long time, which essentially changed students' learning attitudes to improve students' self-directed learning ability and core competence, especially for students with low scores. In summary, findings indicated that team-based learning pedagogical approaches might be beneficial to improve teaching quality in nursing education. However, practice skills might not be sensitive to team-based learning because of the seriation of the original course. Nursing educators need to explore teaching strategies to cultivate high-quality nursing talents to cultivate nursing students with core competence and ensure that they are successfully qualified for new employment. [Display omitted] •The first meta-analysis focused on nursing students.•The included articles were published in the past 9 years in 6 countries.•Core competence not practice skills of nursing students improved by team-based learning pedagogy.•It is necessary to develop new pedagogy to develop core competencies.