Clinical competencies of baccalaureate students

Clinical Competencies of new graduates from baccalaureate programs have periodically been criticized by employers of new graduates. In an effort to understand the levels of clinical preparation for new baccalaureate graduates, three hypotheses dealing with the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains were tested. A review of the literature reveals that most exploration and work has been done relative to the cognitive domain. Sixty-four NLN accredited baccalaureate programs responded to a request that they provide all of the clinical objectives used in their program. Findings revealed that there were clinical evaluation criteria written at all levels of the three domains; however, most schools did not have objectives at each of the levels of the three domains. A disproportionately large number of clinical objectives are written at the cognitive domain. The study raises the question as to the abilities of students to be clinically proficient upon graduation when there are relatively few evaluation criteria written in the psychomotor domain.