Chapter 4 - Understanding the Practice Assessment Document

Abstract

The practice assessment document (PAD) and ongoing achievement record (OAR) are core to the student’s learning experience in practice. They provide the student and practice supervisors and practice assessors with guidance on the types of learning opportunities that each student needs to experience and identify what the student needs to be assessed on in order to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) proficiencies and programme requirements. They are also communication tools between practice supervisors, practice assessors and academic assessors, as well as other staff in practice who may contribute to the student’s learning experiences, including Link Lecturers who meet with the student in practice. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the different sections commonly found in a PAD and the OAR to clarify their purpose and value to practice supervisors and assessors and the student. This can help both practice supervisors and practice assessors to provide positive learning experiences culminating in a fair assessment of the student’s achievements. Some countries in the UK have combined the PAD and OAR into one document, whilst other countries have them as two separate documents, but the principles of how they are used are the same regardless. Whilst the term ‘document’ is used, many universities have moved to electronic versions of the document – commonly called e-PADs.