Nursing Competency Framework Now Available as Default in iDesign's AI Curriculum Intelligence Platform

Align users building nursing programs can now map directly to The Essentials: Core aCompetencies for Professional Nursing Education without manual framework setup

DALLAS, March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- iDesign, a national leader in instructional design and online program development, today announced that The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, the definitive competency framework published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), is now integrated into Align as a default framework available to all nursing program users on the platform. The integration means that nursing faculty and curriculum teams can begin mapping courses and program outcomes directly to The Essentials from day one, without needing to build or import the framework themselves.

The Essentials, formally titled The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, represents the field's defining standard for what graduates of baccalaureate, master's, doctoral programs in nursing should know and be able to do. For institutions developing or revising nursing curricula, aligning program outcomes to those competencies is both an accreditation expectation and a practical design challenge. By embedding The Essentials directly into Align, iDesign removes a friction point that has historically slowed the curriculum mapping process.

Align is a part of iDesign's AI-assisted curriculum intelligence platform, built to help institutions map outcomes, courses, and assessments to standards and accreditation frameworks at scale. The platform's multi-hierarchy architecture allows program teams to visualize coverage, identify gaps, and generate accreditation-ready reports across an entire portfolio of programs. For institutions offering nursing degrees — including RN-BSN, MSN, PMHNP, DNP, and ADN-BSN pathways — having The Essentials pre-loaded as a default framework significantly reduces setup time and supports the kind of program-level alignment that accreditors and academic leaders increasingly expect.

"Nursing program teams are already under pressure to demonstrate competency alignment, and they shouldn't have to spend weeks configuring their tools before the real work begins," said Whitney Kilgore, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer of iDesign. "Making The Essentials available as a built-in default inside Align is about reducing friction so faculty can focus on what matters: designing programs that actually prepare nurses for practice."

iDesign currently supports more than 300 healthcare system partnerships and works with university partners across a broad range of nursing and healthcare programs. The company's AI Curriculum Intelligence platform, of which Align is a core component, is designed to bring consistency and scalability to the curriculum design and review process areas where nursing programs face growing scrutiny from regional and programmatic accreditors alike.

"The complexity of nursing program design is real, and the stakes are high for institutions, for accreditors, and most importantly for future nurses and the patients they'll serve," said Paxton Riter, CEO of iDesign. "Our job is to give curriculum teams the tools to do that work with more speed and confidence. Having The Essentials ready to use inside Align the moment a team starts building is exactly the kind of infrastructure support that changes how programs get designed."

Institutions interested in learning more about Align and its capabilities for nursing and healthcare programs can request a demo at align.idesignedu.org or idesignedu.org.  

Note on Content

Portions of the Align platform for nursing programs contain content from The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, a publication owned by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). Any licensing of The Essentials by AACN does not constitute or imply any endorsement of iDesign or any of its products or services. AACN is not responsible for any errors or omissions in the reproduction of The Essentials by any third party.

SOURCE idesignedu.org