Application of formative assessment in basic skill courses of fundamental nursing among nursing undergraduate students

Abstract

Objective To explore the nursing undergraduates' learning experience on the application of formative assessment in 'Basic Nursing Skills of Fundamental Nursing'. Methods A total of 362 nursing undergraduates for the class of 2014 from School of Nursing in University of South China were selected as study subjects by the method of purposive sampling. The formative assessment was used in the course 'Basic Nursing Skills of Fundamental Nursing'. The satisfaction of student nurses with learning this course and learning self-assessment were investigated with the self-designed learning experience questionnaire in the term end. Results The degree of satisfaction of student nurses with course teaching was high. A total 83.7% of them were satisfied with formative assessment. However, 49.7% of them were satisfied with personal learning management. The highest degree of learning self-assessment was finding their own shortcomings (84.3%) . The second was consolidating what they had learned (83.5%) , and the lowest was promoting autonomic learning (71.5%) . Conclusions Most of the student nurses recognise the formative assessment of this course with high satisfaction with the course learning and a good learning self-assessment. Teachers should pay attention to improving the independent learning ability of students in teaching. Key words: Students, nursing; Educational measurement; Undergraduate; Formative assessment; Basic skills of fundamental nursing