Peer assessment practices in nurse education: An integrative review

The aim of this review was to explore how nurse education prepares students to participate in the peer review process and to deal with the benefits and challenges of giving and receiving peer feedback.

Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) five-step strategy for integrated literature reviews served as a framework for this analysis.

Relevant online university databases (CINAHL, ERIC, Medline, etc.) were searched using a combination of keywords, yielding 24 studies from peer-reviewed journals between 1988 and 2018 that fit inclusion criteria after initial screening.

Data were organized in a summary table by author, year, title, country, methodology, student level, sample size, and setting. Qualitative data analysis software facilitated identification of themes and systematic coding of content. The data were compared across the didactic, clinical, and laboratory settings and then analyzed and synthesized globally for general conclusions.

The predominant themes that emerged were benefits and challenges of peer assessment in nurse education, strategies to prepare students to provide supportive feedback, anonymous vs. non-anonymous peer assessment practices, and recommendations for instructional strategies related to peer assessment.

Peer assessment provides multiple sources of feedback, guides students to think critically about course content, and engages them in advanced self-assessment. However, if students are not well prepared to participate in peer assessment, it can lead to a sense of incompetence, anxiety, and a hostile learning environment. Well-designed peer assessment is an important instructional strategy to prepare future nurses to participate in peer review in professional nursing practice.