Objectively assessing nursing practices: a curricular development

In preparation for the changing needs of undergraduate nursing students undertaking a Project 2000 degree, it was necessary to rethink the nursing skills programme. After studying the literature a nursing skills laboratory was designed which provided both an institutional and a domestic setting. A progressive programme was developed, to help the students learn nursing practices, which was based on the Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE). A small pilot study was set up using second and third-year students from the traditional nursing studies degree. A number of stations were set up comprising various nursing scenarios. The students who were being assessed rotated through these. Other students acted as patients, examiners and some volunteered to be novices being taught by the more senior students. A set of marking criteria was drawn up for each station to enable each student to be assessed objectively. One of the stations was filmed to provide the students with personal feedback. By the end of the session the students had rotated through each of the stations and received the marked criteria as feedback. At the end of the session a focused group interview took place with all the students and the two lecturers involved in setting up the project. Students were positive and felt the process had potential for future development as a means of integration and consolidation of skills prior to clinical experience. The early introduction of filming to the programme was though to be of benefit by reducing stress levels through regular use. Students felt that the role of teaching the 'novice' helped them focus on their knowledge and performance. This process is resource intensive in human and non-human terms but enables small groups of students to learn in a realistic but safe, non-threatening environment and encourages them to take responsibility for their own learning.