Testing the reliability and validity of the nurse practitioner student competency assessment

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Competency-Based Education
• Healthcare Professional Assessment

Background:

• The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials (2021) and National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) Role Competencies (2022) guide professional nursing standards.
• There is a growing emphasis on competency-based education for Nurse Practitioners (NPs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the revised Nurse Practitioner Student Competency Assessment (NPSCA).
• The NPSCA measures person-centered competencies aligned with AACN and NONPF guidelines.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-three NP students from four programs participated in a simulation-based assessment.
• Faculty used the NPSCA and the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Scale to score video-recorded student simulations.
• Data were collected via an online survey program.

Main Results:

• The final NPSCA has 17 items with 100% faculty agreement on relevance, indicating content validity.
• Excellent internal consistency was found (Cronbach's alpha = 0.884-0.895).
• Correlations with the VCU Scale supported criterion-related validity (r = 0.288, p = .036 and r = 0.589, p < .001).

Conclusions:

• The NPSCA demonstrates strong reliability and validity for assessing NP student competencies.
• The instrument's internal consistency, content validity, and criterion-related validity are sufficiently supported.
• The NPSCA can help ensure NP graduate readiness for practice, addressing a need for valid assessment tools.