Few options are available to nursing regulatory boards for the evaluation of nursing competency in registered nurses who are reported for practice breakdown. To address this deficiency, the authors conducted funded research through collaboration between their respective institutions: a state nursing regulatory board, a community college nursing program, and a state university nursing program. Through this collaboration, a competency evaluation process that used high-fidelity simulation was developed and was called the nursing performance profile (NPP). The NPP process consisted of evaluation of videotaped performances of registered nurses providing simulated patient care in three successive situations. Nurses who were experienced in both practice and supervision rated the performances according to scoring guidelines developed by the authors. Findings showed that the NPP process has the potential to (1) provide regulators, educators, and employers with a quantitative picture of nurse performance across nine areas essential to safe practice, and (2) establish a basis for recommending a specific remediation plan or continuing professional development.
Background and PurposeEducators, employers, and regulatory agencies face substantive challenges in evaluating nursing competency. Evidence on what competency is and how to measure it can mitigate the challenges.MethodsParticipants (N = 67) completed three high-fidelity simulation tests. Each video-recorded test was scored by three raters using a 41-item instrument. Exploratory factor analysis was used to define the latent structure of the instrument.ResultsA five-factor solution accounted for 56% of the variance, minimized negative loadings, and minimized the number of cross-loadings. The factors were minimally correlated (each r < .30).ConclusionsThe factors, Vigilant Action, Role Nuances, Precision, Procedural Skills, and Risk Reduction, represent integrated dimensions of competency that can be linked to specific tasks underlying safe practice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.