The tool should help to assess nursing skills, not only the nursing student's ability to perform a task, but also the quality of nursing care.
I have preformed research in BSN and Graduate Nursing students to discern their self perceived knowledge compared with their actual knowledge on the care and management of patients with multiple chronic conditions, symptoms and self management - I am still collecting data on graduate nurses - in the 2 BSN cohorts that I investigated from the NE and SE - both scored less then 50% on the objective evaluation - a discerning finding since 70% of the American population are living with symptomatic chronic disease. I don't think that there can be one simplistic assessment tool to evaluate student learning outcomes - based on therapeutic practice areas - different tools would capture different data points.
All learning outcomes should come from the most current Evidence Based Clinical Practice Guidelines (eg., JNC 8 etc). These guidelines set the standard of care for specific disease outcomes in the US. Nurses for the most part are not taught about the significance of these guidelines and how they set the tone for clinical practice in the US - and used by the Federal Government to identify reimbursement parameters, direct research efforts and now moving into Comparative Effectiveness evaluation.
As a legal expert I repeatedly rely on the Evidence Based Practice Guidelines to demonstrate how nursing critical decision making does not include the use of standardized evidence to direct practice - for example Preventing Patient Falls from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality - these guidelines are used to protect patients and relied on in the court of law to ensure that nurses adhere to the standard of care.
Guided by nursing curriculum the following questions help to develop assessment tool
1. What is the knowledge or theoretical background of the students?
2. What are the competencies you want to assess?
3. What are the quality nursing care indicators in each competency?
Tools for assessing nursing practices are complex, as they have to assess both human attitudes as scientific and technical knowledge. But we found some useful, that evaluate through simulation, practical examination and reflective diary.
It is just last year we revised our clinical evaluation tool and again made it more precise last month to measure student learning outcomes. In every nursing program we have the final objectives of the BSN program . These objectives or capabilities that are expected of a graduate nurse could be the starting point. Take each of these objectives and think of measurement statements under each of them. Place them with a rating scale of 0-4 and provide description for your rating scale.eg If we have an intended learning outcome of a graduate being able to develop critical thinking , then develop a criteria that states,Demonstrates organized thought process, does not repeat errors in thinking, ask relevant insightful question etc etc. Hope this answers your question Bindu!!
You may be interested in the Nursing Competency Assessment Schedule. This is a competency assessment schedule which assesses students against statutory (Australian Nursing and Midwives Board) and 8 employer competencies. My colleague Roy Brown and I, developed the NCAS supported by funds from the then Australian Learning and Teaching Council. The schedule was developed via wide involvement with the profession and is currently being used, or in the process of being implemented, in over half of the 38 nursing BN programmes in Australia. We are currently working wioth Norwegian Nursing Schools with a view to modifiying the schedule for use is Norway. We are also developing a system to use the NCAS in Simulation Learning environments. The ALTC report can be found at: http://www.cdnm.edu.au/papers
I am also happy to answer any questions about the NCAS. My email address in [email protected]
Hi Bindu, my name is Roy Brown, just following on from Patrick Crookes' comment earlier... I would be happy to discuss my national implementation work for the Nursing Competency Assessment Schedule project. Regards Roy
Hi Bindu,
i used before 2 books which are helpful
if you are interested communicate with me in this email and I will send the 2 books to you by the end next week
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