Development of a comprehensive clinical performance assessment system for nursing students: A programmatic approach.

Aim: Evaluation of achievement of learning objectives needs an accurate assessment program. Hence, nursing educators should move away from the use of individual assessment methods to apply a programmatic approach. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive assessment system for nursing students in their critical care rotation based on a programmatic approach.
Methods: The population of this study was nursing students in their critical care course. The learning objectives of the course were determined using an expert panel and classified into three categories. Suitable assessment methods were identified for each category according to the consensus of experts. Then, the assessment tools were designed and the content validity was established using content validity ratio (CVR) and index (CVI). The reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The satisfaction of the participants was investigated using a questionnaire.
Results: According to the findings, all items of the assessment system had a high CVR (P < 0.05) and CVI ranged 0.93-0.97. The alpha coefficient of the whole system was more than 0.90 and for subsystems ranged 0.72-0.96. The findings showed that 87.5% of the instructors and 89.47% of students believed that the new assessment system had a positive impact on learning. In addition, the majority of them were satisfied with the new assessment system.
Conclusion: A programmatic approach should be used for effective evaluation of clinical performance of nursing students in critical care settings because of high validity and reliability, multidimensionality, positive educational impact, and acceptability.
(© 2015 Japan Academy of Nursing Science.)