INDICATIONS FOR USING RESULTS OF A WRITTEN PATIENT SIMULATION IN THE CURRICULUM PLANNING PROCESS (NURSING).
Contributors: University of Kansas.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 215
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Education, Tests and Measurements.
Description: Three problems for nurse educators are identified: (1) a need for reliable and valid methods of assessing nursing students' nursing process skills; (2) a need for innovative procedures (written test designs to assess problem-solving competence) to be developed and evaluated; and (3) a need for evaluative data from experimentation to be fed into the curriculum planning process. The purpose of this study was to develop and measure the validity and reliability of a written simulation designed to measure nursing students' ability to apply the nursing process to maternal health patient situations and to feed evaluative data from experimentation into the curriculum planning process.

The study sample was 31 senior (experienced) and 31 junior (inexperienced) baccalaureate nursing students who completed theory and clinical courses in maternal health nursing. The experienced subjects had more experience in using the nursing process than did the inexperienced subjects. The subjects completed the six-hour written simulation which used a predetermined linear sequence with a free response design. The test format used a combination of videotape, slides, and a simulated medical record.

The instrument possesses content and concurrent validity and interjudge reliability. Of the test items in the instrument, 90.4 percent of the items were perceived by 75 percent or more of the judges as measuring the objective(s) for which they were designed. Significant correlations between the subjects' simulation test score and two independent external criteria, the final clinical performance score, r = .220, p (LESSTHEQ) .05, and the theory score, r = .457, p (LESSTHEQ) .01 were found using Pearson correlation coefficient. The Kendall Coefficient of Concordance; W indicated that the judges' scoring of tests was consistent for the simulation test score, W = .635, p (LESSTHEQ) .001.

The two-tailed t-test results indicated the experienced subjects performed significantly higher (.05 level) than the inexperienced subjects on the planning and evaluation steps of the nursing process. Evaluative data from experimentation was fed into the curriculum planning process for use in decision-making regarding curriculum development and improvement. The study indicates that a written simulation can be used for assessing nursing process skills, as a teaching-learning tool, and for formative and summative evaluation.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2372.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, 1984.

School code: 0099.