Improving the evaluation of clinical competence in undergraduate students; evidence and technology: An integrative review

Abstract

Background

Assessment of clinical practice is integral to determining nursing students' knowledge, critical thinking, and overall clinical competency to ensure patients are receiving quality care. There are no best practice approaches to evaluating competency in undergraduate nursing students despite the necessity to attest to how students are meeting regulatory standards upon graduation. The use of technology in healthcare and post-secondary institutions has increased, however, within nursing education, technology use for clinical evaluation remains largely underused.

Purpose

This integrative narrative review aimed to synthesize literature on evaluating undergraduate nursing students' clinical competence and the role of technology in enhancing the assessment process.

Methods

An integrative review was conducted to inform quality improvement projects relative to the assessment of students' clinical performance in an undergraduate nursing program in Canada. Authors searched the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database for articles relating to competency, clinical performance evaluation, clinical evaluation tools, formative and summative evaluation, and technology in clinical evaluation. The main questions guiding this review were: How is competence assessed in relation to undergraduate students' clinical performance? And, how can technology enhance the assessment of students' clinical performance?

Results

A total of 34 articles were included in this review. Current clinical evaluation processes use a combination of methods and tools to evaluate students' competence, however, there remains room for ongoing advancements. Adopting technology into the evaluation process can help students better understand competencies and learning outcomes, receive near real-time feedback from clinical instructors, and promote critical self-reflection. Technology has also reduced student and faculty workload with a more efficient and streamlined process. Further research is needed to understand how technology can best be incorporated into clinical evaluation processes.

Conclusion

Though under-researched, technology has been shown to be a valuable tool in the clinical evaluation process to promote student engagement in the assessment of clinical performance. In addition, considering factors such as the student and faculty relationship, preferences for feedback, and overall workload in the design of clinical evaluation processes is necessary.