Standardizing faculty evaluation of nurse practitioner students by using simulated patients

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Healthcare Simulation

Background:

• Variations in patient cases and clinical settings can introduce bias in student skill evaluation.
• Simulated patient encounters offer a controlled environment to assess clinical skills.
• Standardized assessment tools are needed to ensure reliable evaluation of nurse practitioner students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the interrater reliability of the Student Clinical Performance Scale.
• To identify factors contributing to variability in faculty scoring of simulated patient encounters.
• To underscore the importance of rigorous instrument development for clinical competence assessment.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study involving faculty pairs assessing videotaped simulated patient encounters.
• Utilized the Student Clinical Performance Scale for standardized scoring.
• Analyzed correlation coefficients and identified sources of faculty variability across six case studies.

Main Results:

• Faculty interrater reliability, measured by correlation coefficients, varied significantly across different case studies.
• Several scenario-specific and faculty-related factors were identified as systematic sources of scoring variability.
• The Student Clinical Performance Scale demonstrated potential but required further refinement.

Conclusions:

• The study highlights the need for robust development and testing of instruments for measuring clinical competence.
• Simulated patients provide a valuable method for evaluating a broad range of student attributes and advanced skills.
• Standardization and addressing identified variability factors are key for effective use of simulated patient assessments in nursing education.