Evaluation of a Tool for Assessing Clinical Competence of Msc Nurse Students

This paper reports the first of a four phase study whose aim is to develop and validate an instrument for assessing the clinical competence of Master of Science (Msc) - medical-surgical nurse students. The objective of the first phase of the study was to evaluate the existing instrument, currently being used for assessing clinical competence of MSc nurse students pursuing medical/surgical specialty. It also explores ideas and content for the development of a new tool. The target population was nurse educators and nurse clinicians with a minimum of MSc-Medical/surgical nursing. Twenty seven (27) participants who participated in this study were drawn from eight (8) of Kenya’s recognized universities offering nursing training. The participants had been involved in the training of undergraduate and post-graduate nurse students for a minimum of two (2) years. The aim was to capture participants with current knowledge in nursing practice and those who are familiar with emerging issues in nursing education and practice. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17. The study findings showed that the tool has a low average congruency percentage at 60%. Only seven (20.6%) out of 34 items/competencies demonstrated the minimum content validity index (CVI) of 0.78 (Lynn, 1986). This calls for urgent revision of the tool specifically in terms of adding some performance competencies and probably deleting others. Keywords: Instrument evaluation, Clinical competence, Clinical competence assessment instrument, Content evidence, Average Congruency Percentag