A CRITERION-REFERENCED PERFORMANCE EXAMINATION AS A MEASURE OF SENIOR BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS' LEADERSHIP SKILLS.
Contributors: State University of New York at Albany.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Education, Tests and Measurements.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Educators and politicians have advocated the direct measurement of outcomes of higher education as the basis for institutional accountability. The ability to assess the outcomes of higher education is severely limited by a lack of consensus about the criteria judged important, disagreement over the standards considered appropriate, and conflict over the indicators judged credible. This study investigated the validity of two Leadership Modules of the Professional Performance Examination (PPE) of The New York State Regents College Degrees Baccalaureate in Nursing Program (RCDNP) which purports to measure senior level baccalaureate nursing students' leadership skill.

The sample consisted of senior baccalaureate students (n = 80) who were within one month of graduation from a campus-based NLN accredited BSN program in the northeast. Two Leadership Modules were utilized as the final examination in a required Nursing Management Course.

Campbell and Fiske's model (1959) for investigating construct validity was utilized to examine three traits (clinical decision-making, interpersonal skill, and management strategies) and three methods (faculty rating of each student on each trait, measures of simulated clinical performance on two RCDNP video simulated leadership modules, and traditional measures of students' cognitive and clinical abilities). Little evidence for construct validity of the instruments was demonstrated. A major factor identified as contributing to the inability to absence of construct validity was related to the inconsistencies observed within the traditional measures of academic and clinical performance utilized as criterion measures.

Passers on the Leadership Dimension were found to score significantly higher on the criterion measures. Educators in traditional programs may need to examine the variables that could account for the differences in pass rates on the Leadership Modules between RCDNP students (67%) and the study group (20%). This study helps clarify some of the conceptual and psychometric issues that need to be addressed in the movement toward competency-based education and assessment of outcomes.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-06, Section: A, page: 1440.

Thesis (ED.D.)--STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT ALBANY, 1987.

School code: 0668.