Evaluation of tools to assess clinical competence

Assessment of student nurses' clinical skills is an important issue in nurse education. However suitable instruments are difficult to locate, and also to design. In the course of this article the need for scientifically designed and tested assessment instruments is discussed. The thoroughness with which 11 clinical assessment documents were developed was evaluated using specific criteria. It was found that in the majority of cases use of a systematic research process to guide development was not evident. However it must be noted that the assessment documents were only evaluated via their presentation in journal articles. Full details of the entire project had perhaps not been published. The implications of the results, some of the difficulties inherent in instrument design and the limitations of this small review are considered.