Evaluating basic nursing skills through group video testing

The skills/assessment course is the initial clinical experience for students and they are quite naive in their role expectations. Benner (1982 and 1987) refers to the transition stages of "novice" to "expert" in nursing. Although the major focus of the group video testing situation was to solve time constraints, the incorporation of professional nursing judgment was addressed in the process. The group effort, patient scenarios, critiques, visual performance, and analysis found in the group video testing method may expedite this transition of the "novice" to "competent" and eventual "expert" practitioner.