NONPF 39th Annual Meeting
The purpose of this Evidence Based Project was to use various methods to accurately evaluate advanced practice students competencies as they progress through an APN program. The goal of the project was to implement specific competency measures throughout the graduate program to assess and affirm APN competencies. The objectives of this project were to assess and measure students’ competencies in advanced health assessment, advanced diagnostics, clinical case analysis and presentation, clinical reasoning skills, and evidence based practice skills.
Description
After reviewing the literature on competency assessment at the graduate level, several assessment methodologies were developed.
Multiple assessment methods were employed at each of the three levels of the APN program. The assessment methods included measurement of: advanced health assessment skill and advanced diagnostics skills assessment on standardized patients with trained rater scoring and assessment, and clinical case scenario assessments for advanced level APN courses. The final colloquium project presentations were used to assess EBP competencies along with oral and written communication skills.
Evaluation and Outcomes:
Students’ clinical competency evaluation data was combined with other assessment data. The data from multiple sources was used by clinical instructors to plan students’ clinical experiences with clinical preceptors. Students completed self-assessments with personal development plans based upon the results of each of their individual assessments. Students shared these clinical development plans with their clinical preceptors.
Board certification results clinical evaluation data and employer survey/feedback data are being used to assess overall impact of the multi methods of APN student competencies assessment project.
