An investigation into self, peer and tutor assessments of student psychiatric nurse's written work assignments

As part of an 84-week experiential psychiatric nurse training course, a group (n = 19) of post registration student nurses (PRSNS) were involved in the process of writing four essays on aspects of psychiatric nursing during their first 16 weeks of school based study days. The marking criteria for each essay was determined in the classroom by the PRSNS together with their tutor, and the essays were subsequently written in the student's own time. Assessment and grading of each essay was carried out by the student, a peer, and a tutor, using the agreed marking criteria. Analysis of the independently awarded grades for all of the essays reveals that students consistently award themselves lower grades than either their peers or their tutors, with tutors awarding the highest grades in 3 of the 4 essays. Further analysis reveals that peers and tutors, and peers and students grades correlated significantly in 2 out of the 4 essays.