Have OSCEs come of age in nursing education?

This article is intended to contribute to the current debate as to whether the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) should become a standard assessment tool for undergraduate nursing education as they currently are for medicine. The authors describe how one UK university developed an OSCE for a nursing undergraduate programme with the aim of emphasising the need for nursing students to be competent in clinical skills and offering a means of standardising the assessment of these skills. There has been an increasing number of research studies carried out in this area at international level and this article's main contribution to the literature is the description of the Angoff standard-setting procedure that was used to calibrate the OSCE at this University and which makes it the first nursing OSCE in the UK to incorporate a scientific standard-setting procedure.

Predicting family caregiver psychosocial functioning in palliative care

Health professionals are expected to support family caregivers of patients requiring palliative care. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence to help clinicians identify caregivers who might be at risk of poor psychosocial functioning.

Simulated peer assessment initiative aimed at increasing the competency of nursing students within fields of nursing

Newly qualified nurses have been educated and assessed as being proficient carrying out certain procedures ,one such insertion of nasogastric feeding tube. Link between theory and practice will be explored. Highlighting the value of low fidelity simulation and peer assessment to enhance skills and competencies.

Evaluation of an Older Persons’ Assessment Educational Workbook with second year nursing students in the UK.

Background: As a first step to successfully meet the complex health and social needs of older people, patient assessment has become a central feature of government policy and practice in order to ensure that care planning is person-centred. A core component of nurse education is clinical practice in order to support the development of clinical skills and competence; therefore it is important to help students and their practice-based mentors to develop and apply older person assessment skills. Therefore, an educational workbook was developed to help 2nd year nursing students to learn a structured, systematic and individualised older person assessment process with the support of their mentor.

Aim: A pilot study to evaluate the impact of an Older Persons’ Assessment Educational Workbook and explore second year nursing students’ competence and their opinions and use of an older person’s assessment skills workbook.

Research Methodology: A pre-experimental design (pre and post-test with no comparison group) was undertaken with n=6 2nd year students in 2014. The outcome measure was the Nursing Competence Questionnaire and results were analysed using the Wilcoxin Signed Rank Test in SPSS version 21. Content analysis of completed workbooks and a survey (n=5) of opinions regarding the workbook was undertaken.

Key Findings- No pre-post-test difference was found in the Nursing Competence Questionnaire with p=0.058 for the total scale. However, as this was a pilot, the study was under-powered and all students’ scores improved. Content analysis of the workbook found that 3 of the 5 participants completed all components of the workbook, with a mean of 1051 words used (Std dev 281.8). Through the survey students reported the workbook as a useful guide when undertaking a patient assessment.

Conclusions: The workbook showed potential as an intervention to help support development of nursing students’ assessment skills in practice.