AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF CRITERION-REFERENCED MEASUREMENT IN NURSING EDUCATION.
Contributors: University of Florida.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 109
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This evaluative study involved the use of selected criterion-referenced measurement techniques in the development and evaluation of the quality of a summative examination of health assessment in a baccalaureate nursing program. Five content specialists developed an 84-item examination from a set of seven test specifications. The test specifications were written by the researcher from the domain specifications in the health assessment course. The examination was administered to two separate groups of learners, an instructed group of 45 students who had completed the health assessment course and an uninstructed group of 37 students who had enrolled, but not yet taken the health assessment course. The groups were compared on data related to age, years of nursing practice experience, and type of basic nursing education program attended.

The content validity of the examination was confirmed through the positive responses received from an Item Writers Critique, a Technical Review and an Item-Objective Congruence Matching. The decision validity of the examination was analyzed using an index of discrimination and student evaluation of the items. While the overall quality of the test items was good, there were 17 items that were considered to be in need of refinement and five items that need closer analysis for determination of refinement or replacement.

The reliability of the examination was computed for each group separately using an index of dependability for mastery tests. The index affirmed the reliability of the examination for each group: .82 for the instructed and .68 for the uninstructed group. The cut score was determined to be a score of 54 using a Criterion-Groups Validation Model.

The results of this study illustrate the usefulness and accuracy of the criterion-referenced techniques selected for application to this population of baccalaureate nursing students and suggest that further research into the use of this measurement approach be considered for testing competence in nursing education.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-07, Section: A, page: 1982.

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

School code: 0070.