Making the Case for Simulation-Based Assessments to Overcome the Challenges in Evaluating Clinical Competency

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Simulation
• Clinical Competency Assessment

Background:

• Simulation use in nursing education has grown significantly.
• While integrated into curricula, simulation is rarely used for high-stakes clinical competency evaluation.
• There's a growing need to advance simulation beyond a teaching tool to an assessment method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of patient simulation for high-stakes clinical competency evaluation in nursing.
• To discuss the challenges associated with evaluating clinical competency.
• To advocate for simulation-based assessment as a valuable addition to current evaluation methods.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on simulation in nursing education.
• Analysis of the differences between simulation for teaching versus evaluation.
• Discussion of the practicalities and challenges of implementing simulation for high-stakes assessment.

Main Results:

• Simulation is increasingly adopted in nursing curricula.
• Few institutions utilize simulation for high-stakes evaluations like end-of-semester or pre-graduation assessments.
• Simulation-based assessment presents a novel but promising avenue for evaluating clinical competency.

Conclusions:

• Simulation-based assessment offers a significant potential to enhance and impact nursing education.
• Addressing the challenges is key to successfully implementing simulation for high-stakes evaluations.
• Further research and development are needed to fully leverage simulation for clinical competency assessment.