Development of a web-based tool to evaluate competences of nursing students through the assessment of their clinical...

Assessing the clinical ability of nursing students continues to be a fundamental challenge within the nursing degree. Designing innovative teaching strategies while ensuring an educational experience that results in safe nursing practices is an additional challenge for all educators.

To design, develop and implement a tool to evaluate the clinical skills of nursing students.

A two-phase study. In the second phase, a pre-experimental study was conducted.

Health Sciences Department of the University of Almería, Spain.

250 Nursing students in the second year of their degree.

The study was divided into 2 phases: 1st) Web-based tool design and development and 2nd) Usability testing. In the second phase, a pre-experimental study was conducted both with an experimental group and a control group.

In the first phase, a panel of 15 experts confirmed that the content and technical aspects of the tool were adequate (scores of 4-5/5). In the second phase, the participants of the experimental group showed higher final scores in the evaluated skills section, as well as shorter evaluation time and a greater number of observations and registered incidents than the participants in the control group. Finally, the students of the experimental group indicated a greater degree of satisfaction with the evaluation system used.

The web-based tool designed is an effective strategy to evaluate clinical skills. It is important to have strategies and instruments that allow us to demonstrate the development and acquisition of the skills required for future nursing professionals.