Abstract
AimThe aim was to explore how nurse mentors experience the assessment of nursing students in clinical placements at hospitals and in municipal health care.DesignThe study is qualitative with an explorative and descriptive design.MethodsBased on an interview guide, we conducted 19 individual qualitative interviews and four focus group interviews with nurse mentors from various levels and fields of nursing education at a Norwegian university.ResultsFeedback in and on action was an integrated part of the formative assessment. In the summative assessment, where the university lecturer also participates, the nurse mentors perceived their role as passive. A disturbing finding was that divergent views on the student's competence sometimes occurred in these situations, thus challenging the credibility of the student assessment. Perceptions of nursing values and concerns embedded in nursing practice as collective criteria appear to have an impact on the mentors’ assessment of the nursing students.
Highlights
The assessment of competence within a learning environment is a key element of nurse mentors’ supervision of nursing students during their clinical placements
The focus group interviews required a more open, thematic guide, while some sub-questions were added to the semi-structured guide used in the individual interviews. We considered that both forms of qualitative interviews were suitable for data collection in this study, because both discussions as well as detailed, individual responses could contribute to providing variation in the empirical material
Spoken and unspoken ideal perceptions of nursing values and concerns are embedded in nursing practice as collective criteria, which have an impact on the assessment of nursing students
Summary
The assessment of competence within a learning environment is a key element of nurse mentors’ supervision of nursing students during their clinical placements. According to Boud (2015), assessment and feedback that influence learning require knowledge of appropriate standards, comparison of the work performed with these standards and taking of action to close the gap between the two. Feedback should, according to Clynes and Raftery (2008), provide the student with information on current practice and offer practical advice for improved performance. Previous research shows that effective, critical and constructive feedback as part of continuous assessment enables nursing students to identify their strengths and weaknesses (Adamson et al, 2018; Clynes & Raftery, 2008). Nurse mentors assess the students’ attitudes, knowledge and skills within a clinical learning environment. Evaluating the students’ performance of nursing is a complex activity that
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