Psychometric Testing of an Instrument Measuring Core Competencies of Nursing Students

Abstract

Assessing the core competencies of nursing students provides information about students' learning outcomes for educational evaluation and improvement. The aim of this study was to develop the Nursing Students Core Competencies scale to measure 8 core competencies of nursing students in Taiwan. The study employed factor analysis and Mokken scaling analysis for psychometric testing of this instrument between a group of nursing graduates and their evaluators. The results indicated that the Nursing Students Core Competencies scale has demonstrated evidence of internal consistency, structural validity, unidimensionality, and a hierarchy of items for students' self-assessment and instructor's rating. The use of Mokken scaling analysis extends the knowledge of developing competence assessment tools; it can be used to reveal the domains or items of competency nursing students perceive that are easy or difficult, providing information for curricular design.

Evaluating clinical competence during nursing education: A comprehensive integrative literature review

“…Of the 19 studies included in this review, four were conducted in the United States and in Taiwan, two in Sweden and Iran, and one study each in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Korea, Iran and Finland . The studies have their origin in different countries and educational paradigms and show a big variation of methods and designs (see Table ).…”

“…The methodological approaches differ from quantitative ( n = 11), qualitative ( n = 5) to mixed methods ( n = 3). Data were collected by questionnaires in 12 studies, by questionnaires combined with focus groups in two studies, by focus group interviews in two studies, and by observations, video analysis combined with questionnaire/checklist and interviews in one study. In addition to Walsh et al ., three other articles included instrument development and validation .…”

Identification and exploration of nursing competencies required for newly graduated nurses in Korea​​​​​​​

“…Patient education is a key attribute of patient-centred care (Kitson et al, 2012;Pelzang, 2010). This is supported in other studies citing patient education as a crucial nursing activity and is globally understood to be a core competency for entry-level practice nurses Brown & Crookes, 2016a;Ivarsson & Nilsson, 2009;Nilsson et al, 2014;Perng & Watson, 2013).…”

“…Although this scale falls within the ordinal level of measurement (Cohen et al, 2013;Furr & Bacharach, 2008), several studies found that parametric methods could be utilised together for data analysis (Allen & Seaman, 2007;Norman, 2010). The points, therefore, were labelled with a continuous line, which yielded a continuous interval measure (Allen & Seaman, 2007;Perng & Watson, 2013). Table 5 Bondy's Modified Criteria Used to Classify Student Competence (Brown & Crookes, 2016) Refers to being safe and knowledgeable most of the time; skilful in parts.…”

“…Eleven articles mentioned that newly graduated nurses need to be aware of changes in national and global policies and how they impact nursing practice. This is because nurses should care about community or social health issues as health professionalsPerng & Watson, 2013). Self-directed learning is a pivotal part of the nurses' professional development.…”