Development and Testing of Competency Based Performance Assessment in the Evaluation of Core Competencies of Nursing Students - A Pilot Study

In recent years nursing educational authorities in many countries have introduced competency based assessment and reporting systems in the form of national standards, frameworks and benchmarks of various kinds which are used both for purposes of system accountability and for assessing individual progress and achievement in nursing education and practice. This pilot study is an attempt to find out the effectiveness of competency based performance assessment in evaluation of core competencies of nursing students. 60 final year BSC Nursing students were enrolled for the pilot study using convenient sampling from selected colleges in Bangalore and Kolar. Modified Delphi technique with experts from the field of nursing practice and education was used to develop the core competencies essential for nursing students. Data was collected by using tools such as the clinical competency rating scale completed by the clinical supervisor, 360 degree feedback of students self, peers, patients, RN working in the clinical areas, and case vignettes paper and pencil test completed by the subjects. An educational interventional package consisting of modules of competency assessment tools and techniques, core competency development strategies was introduced to experimental group. The opinion of the teachers and students towards the CBPA approach was assessed after posttest. The results showed that while there was no difference in the pretest competency level of students in experimental and control group, there was significant difference in the posttest competency scores (t value 5.81) of both the groups. In the comparison of the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group, the calculated t value of 2.20 signified improvement in the competency levels of the nursing students in the posttest at 0.05 levels. In the comparison of the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group, the calculated t value of 2.20 was greater than the table value (0.05 level) of 2.05 at 29 degrees of freedom. Therefore there is significant improvement in the competency levels of the nursing students in the posttest at 0.05 levels. In contrast, in the comparison of pretest and posttest scores of the control group, the calculated t value of 0.33 showed no significant difference between pretest and posttest competency levels. All the clinical supervisors were fully satisfied with the Competency based performance assessment approach and 93% of the students were fully satisfied with the approach. This study paves the way for utilizing competency based assessment in evaluating competencies of nursing students.