Development and testing of tools to evaluate public health nursing clinical education at the baccalaureate level

Tools to evaluate clinical coursework with community groups for basic baccalaureate students are limited and often have not been sufficiently validated. This study developed and tested 2 tools. The initial phase of development involved identifying expected outcomes for clinical course work and specific tool items from 2 sources of information: (a) U.S. and Canadian policy documents on public health and community health nursing and (b) themes and skills identified as important or satisfying by nursing students during their clinical coursework. The tools were then tested for reliability and validity with subsequent classes of students using predefined criteria. The tool "Confidence in Using Public Health Nursing Skills" was developed from 2 sources: the themes and skills identified as important by students and beginning practice expectations identified from policy documents. The tool "Satisfaction With Team Projects" was developed from student responses to questions on satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Both tools were found to be reliable in terms of internal consistency reliability and valid in terms of content and structure. The tool or the process to develop the tool will be useful for designing and evaluating appropriate clinical education.