The reliability of measuring nursing clinical performance using a competency based assessment tool: a pilot study.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Competency Assessment

Background:

• Novice nurse clinical performance is a concern, particularly in medication administration, time management, and patient comfort/safety.
• Existing competency frameworks, like the Australian Nursing Council Inc. (ANCI) statements, inform the development of assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a competency-based assessment tool for new graduate nurses.
• To determine the inter-rater reliability of the developed assessment tool.

Main Methods:

• A 44-item competency assessment tool was created based on ANCI statements.
• A correlational descriptive design was employed with 30 new graduate nurses.
• Two observers assessed each nurse for an average of 127.5 minutes, with Kappa coefficients calculated for inter-rater reliability.

Main Results:

• Poor inter-rater reliability was found for individual competency items.
• No significant difference was observed in total competency scores between the two observers.
• The assessment tool demonstrated face validity and internal consistency.

Conclusions:

• The developed competency assessment tool has potential but requires refinement to improve inter-rater reliability for individual items.
• Further validation is needed to ensure consistent assessment of specific nursing skills among novice practitioners.