Design of a Competency Evaluation Model for Clinical Nursing Practicum, Based on Standardized Language Systems: Psychometric Validation Study

• Published in: Journal of nursing scholarship Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 371 - 376
• Main Authors: Iglesias-Parra, Maria Rosa, García-Guerrero, Alfonso, García-Mayor, Silvia, Kaknani-Uttumchandani, Shakira, León-Campos, Álvaro, Morales-Asencio, José Miguel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-07-2015
• Subjects: Clinical Competence; Clinical teaching (health education); competency-based education; Cross-Sectional Studies; Education, Nursing; Educational Measurement; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Humans; Language; Nursing; nursing education; practicums; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; student evaluation; Spain; performance; nursing education; student evaluation; competency-based education; Clinical teaching (health education); practicums
• ISSN: 1527-6546; 1547-5069
• DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12140

Purpose
To develop an evaluation system of clinical competencies for the practicum of nursing students based on the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC).
Design and Methods
Psychometric validation study: the first two phases addressed definition and content validation, and the third phase consisted of a cross‐sectional study for analyzing reliability. The study population was undergraduate nursing students and clinical tutors.
Findings
Through the Delphi technique, 26 competencies and 91 interventions were isolated. Cronbach's α was 0.96. Factor analysis yielded 18 factors that explained 68.82% of the variance. Overall inter‐item correlation was 0.26, and total–item correlation ranged between 0.66 and 0.19.
Conclusions
A competency system for the nursing practicum, structured on the NIC, is a reliable method for assessing and evaluating clinical competencies. Further evaluations in other contexts are needed.
Clinical Relevance
The availability of standardized language systems in the nursing discipline supposes an ideal framework to develop the nursing curricula.