Creating a National Standard for Prelicensure Clinical Evaluation in Nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Health Professions Education
• Clinical Outcome Measurement

Background:

• Prelicensure nursing programs lack standardized, psychometrically validated clinical outcome measures.
• Programs currently develop their own unique assessment tools, leading to inconsistencies.
• Key stakeholders desire consistent measurement of clinical outcomes in nursing students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the reasons for the lack of standardized clinical outcome measures in nursing education.
• To explore existing models for standardized clinical outcome measures.
• To consider recommendations from health professions education.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of the gap in clinical outcome measures.
• Analysis of models for standardized clinical outcome assessment.
• Examination of recommendations from health professions education.

Main Results:

• A standardized clinical outcome tool offers benefits for student learning experiences.
• Unifying communication regarding graduate nurse preparation is a key advantage.
• Standardization can improve how nursing program outcomes are communicated to stakeholders.

Conclusions:

• Nursing education can lead the development of a national, standardized clinical outcome tool.
• Emulating medicine and pharmacy in creating a unified measure is feasible.
• Utilizing current psychometric methods for development and validation is recommended.