Assessment Practices of Student’s Clinical Competences in Nurse Education

Abstract

Background: Clinical competence in nursing practices includes all the theoretical and clinical knowledge used by the student in a clinical setting. It also involves psychomotor as well as problem-solving skills. The assessment focuses on evaluating the student's ability to provide both safe and competent care for the patients. However, it requires the use of several assessment methods that must be varied according to the components of the clinical competence. Several studies have revealed that the evaluation of this competency is mostly limited to knowledge testing or the acquisition of technical skills verification. Aims: This study has two objectives. Firstly, it aims to analyze the assessment practices related to clinical competence and adopted by teachers in higher institutes of nursing and health technology in Morocco. Secondly, it seeks to identify the difficulties faced by them in using a variety of appropriate assessment tools to target all the components of clinical competence. Methods: Based on the theoretical model adapted from the Miller’s pyramid by Mehay and Burns in 2009, relating to the assessment of clinical competence, a self-administered questionnaire was shared with 129 nursing teachers. Results: The results indicate that 98.06% of participants use a given tool to assess clinical competence; however, using the appropriate tools to evaluate all its components is limited, and the assessment tools are not characterized by variety. Conclusion: Reflecting on the evaluation of clinical competences, a clinical assessment model could be proposed to be in accordance with the theoretical model and to measure its impact on nursing students' learning.