Comparison of Standardized Patient and Faculty Agreement in Evaluating Nursing Students’ Assessment and Communication Skills

Abstract

Purpose This study was conducted to examine the level of agreement between a standardized patient (SP) and a faculty member in the evaluation of nursing students’assessment and communication skills. Methods Participants were 51 third year nursing students in a simulation practice of ‘nursing care for a patient admitted with chest pain’. Using a 30-item checklist and a 16-item communication tool, a SP and faculty member evaluated the students’ assessment and communication skills during the simulation. Results The average values for percent agreement and kappa statistic for nursing assessment between the two evaluators were 85.3% and .48 respectively. Twenty of thirty items evaluating assessment skill had above moderate agreement (≥.41) by kappa between the evaluators. Seven of sixteen items evaluating communication and interpersonal skills showed above fair agreement (≥.40) between the two evaluators, which was measured by intraclass correlation coefficient. Conclusion The findings show that the evaluation of the SP was consistent with those of the faculty member to a moderate degree. Clear guidelines for evaluating criteria and optimal time and effort for SP training are necessary to increase the reliability of standardized patients as evaluators in simulation-based nursing education. 주요어: í™˜ìžì‹œë®¬ë ˆì´ì ˜, 의사소통, 간호교육, 관찰자간 변이 Key words: Patient simulation, Communication, Nursing education, Inter-observer variation