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Validity and reliability testing of a competency-based assessment instrument for nurse practitioner students
Katie L McDermott1, Ke Yan2, Melodee A Liegl2
1Children's Wisconsin, 8915 W. Connell Court, MS 681, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA; Marquette University, Straz Hall, 1225 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53233, USA; Medical College of Wisconsin, 8915 W. Connell Court, MS 681, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Background:
Nursing education is in the process of transition to competency-based education (CBE) for both prelicensure and graduate students. Competency-based assessment is one of the biggest challenges facing CBE implementation as there are few rigorous instruments available.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to modify the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument (CCEI) for use with nurse practitioner (NP) students and to evaluate the validity and reliability of the CCEI-NP.
Methods:
Surveys were used to conduct the content and construct validity testing of the CCEI-NP. Content validity testing evaluated whether each CCEI-NP item was essential to be included, reflective of the category in which it was included, and easy to understand. Further validity testing evaluated representativeness by determining the alignment between each CCEI-NP items' ability to assess the AACN (2023) Essentials' competencies. Interrater reliability was evaluated as part of CCEI-NP instrument training completed by clinical preceptors.
Results:
The CCEI-NP demonstrated strong validity and reliability evidence. The CCEI-NP instrument was determined to be able to assess 76% (or 34 of the 45) of the AACN Essentials competencies.
Conclusions:
An instrument like the CCEI-NP, firmly established in the Essentials competencies and supporting the core principles of competency-based assessment, is important for consistent evaluation of NP students across specialties. Further testing to establish additional psychometric rigor is warranted.
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