Assessing the competence of student nurses

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Professional Competence Assessment
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Defining and continuously assessing professional competence in nursing practice presents significant challenges.
• Existing literature highlights the complexity of evaluating practical skills and knowledge application in student nurses.
• The need for reliable tools to measure nursing competence is crucial for effective professional development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a tool for assessing the competent practice of student nurses.
• To investigate the complexities in defining and measuring nursing competence.
• To explore the application of Personal Construct Theory in assessing professional development.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Personal Construct Theory (PCT) as a theoretical framework.
• Employed the Repertory Grid Technique to gather data on construct elicitation.
• Developed a novel assessment tool specifically for student nurse practice evaluation.

Main Results:

• Findings indicate that trained staff primarily assess the socialization process of student nurses.
• The developed tool's application revealed a tendency to evaluate integration into the profession over demonstrable competence.
• A discrepancy exists between the intended assessment of competence and the actual observed assessment focus.

Conclusions:

• Current assessment practices may overemphasize socialization, potentially overlooking critical competence indicators in student nurses.
• The study suggests a need to refine assessment tools and training for nursing educators.
• Further research is warranted to differentiate between socialization and competence assessment in nursing education.