Developing an Assessment Tool for Nursing Students` General Clinical Performance

Introduction: The necessity of valid and reliable assessment tools is one of the most emphasized issues in literature related to nursing students` clinical assessment. But it is believed that the present tools are mostly not valid and reliable, and can not measure students` performances properly. The aim of this study was to design a valid and reliable assessment tool for evaluation of nursing students` general performance in clinical education. Methods: This is a methodological research done in 2011 at Universities of Medical Sciences in Tehran. First, nursing students` general clinical performance was defined. Domains and items of the tool were determined through expert interviews and literature review. Then psychometric properties of the tool were determined. Validity was determined using face validity (through expert viewpoints and item impact method) and content validity (through expert viewpoints, content validity ratio and content validity index). Reliability was calculated through Cronbach`s alpha and interclass correlation (ICC). Data was analyzed using SPSS. Results: Regarding general clinical performance definition (performances which can be applied in a range of nursing students` roles and clinical sites), domains and items of the tool were determined and the primary tool was designed. Experts` viewpoints were used during designing and psychometry. Item impact score was ≥1.5, content validity ratio was ≥ 0.54 and content validity index was ≥ 0.8 for each item and the total index for the tool was 0.94. Cronbach`s alpha for the whole instrument was 0.992 which also was determined for each domain separately. ICC with r =0.89 was sufficient. Conclusion: The designed tool with good validity and reliability was considered proper and can be used for evaluating nursing students` general performance.