Development of a single component of a performance evaluation protocol. The faculty impression score

The issues of uniformity, consistency, and fairness in the measurement of behavioral skills constitute the ongoing debate of clinical evaluation. Evaluation tools, particularly those that propose to measure observed phenomena, have been judged to be limited in validity or reliability and are, therefore, more subjective than is desirable. Nurse-midwifery educators are challenged to identify or develop clinical and professional performance instruments, and to achieve interfaculty reliability in their application. In addition, nurse-midwifery educational programs that make use of nonsalaried and/or off-site preceptors to contribute to student education must accept the dual challenges of development of clinical teaching skills and also the consistent application of the program's evaluation instruments and methods. The development of the "faculty impression score" as a supplemental, but critical, element within a behaviorally anchored, criterion-referenced evaluation protocol is presented.