Call setvalue on
xforms-value-changed or
DOMFocusOut event.
<xforms:input ref="instance('my-instance')/field-a">
<xforms:action ev:event="xforms-value-changed">
do a setvalue here
</xforms:action>
</xforms:input>
You can read more on events here:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2010/xforms11-qr.html#events