Self Evaluation In Nursing Education and Measurement
What is Self Evaluation
Self evaluation is a process and a skill by which individuals judge their level of clinical knowledge and skill performance measured against external standards, with the goal of self-improvement (Tyser, McCrea, & Knupfer, 2012).
Implementation of Self Evaluation In Nursing
Ubiquitous to health care organizations are performance evaluation processes. A critical aspect of regulating performance and clinical competence includes the evaluation of self. In nursing education, self-evaluation can be used to enhance other evaluative methods in providing a complete picture of student performance. Furthermore, the use of self evaluation during nursing education can be a means to develop this critical skill. Self evaluation, when used accurately, has the potential to promote self awareness and self directed learning that can continue beyond nursing school.
There are several instruments, and various methods, for self-evaluation that have been employed in clinical education. An exploratory study conducted by Abbott, Carswell, Mc Guire, and Best (1988) indicated that self evaluation was positively perceived as a method for providing direction for learning. One of the earliest instruments used was the Nurse Competence Scale (NCS), which was developed for practicing nurses. The scale assesses the competence of students in topics such as therapeutic interventions and ensuring quality. It also includes competence related factors, such as age, gender, and supervision.It was determined that self assessment provided a basis for competence development and should be used systematically during education (Kajander Unkuri et al. 2014).
Methods have included a video recorded benchmark. In this instance, students were videotaped performing a task and asked to assess their performance using global rating scales. Self evaluation was repeated after viewing the benchmark video. It was concluded that the utilization of a benchmark may improve accuracy of self evaluations (Hawkins, Osborne, Schofield, Pourmaras, & Chester, 2012). It was also observed that the utilization of video benchmarks, versus written evaluation guidelines, improved the accuracy of self-evaluation and clinical competence in nursing students performing Foley catheterization skills (Yoo, Yoo, & Lee, 2010).
Self Regulation and Self Directed Learning In Nursing Education
While self directed learning and self regulation are desired outcomes in the practice environment, the accuracy of self evaluation to promote those outcomes is frequently unreliable. Students' self-evaluations are often inversely related to their actual performance; thus, crucial to the accuracy of self evaluation is the specific, timely, and constructive feedback, offered in a safe environment, by credible and trusted supervisors (Baxter & Norman, 2011: Dolmans, 2013; Sargeant et al, 2010; Yoo et al., 2010).
Furthermore, accurate, informed self evaluation requires consideration of internal and external sources such as the learning practice climate, credibility of information processes, personal attributes, and relationships with others.Tensions that arise between internal and external sources, and overall self evaluation, such as the idea that one is a good person, versus momentary self-evaluation in a given context, such as clinical performance, can further lead to inaccuracies with the self- assessment (Sargeant et al., 2010).
Informing the learner about strengths and weaknesses in order to identify learning needs has been utilized widely. Other external methods, such as high-quality positive and negative feedback, should be. employed in order to enhance the accuracy of the students' self evaluations (Plakht, Shiyovich, Nusbaum, & Raizer, 2013). Instructors should also take into consideration the role that motivation plays in the positive role of self evaluations. Evidence suggests that self-evaluation inflation correlates with promotion concerns (Scholer, Ozaki, & Higgins, 2014).
Outcomes of Self Evaluation In Nursing Education
Applications of self-assessment are known to increase self awareness of learning. For the learners, in order to become competent in evaluating their abilities, they should be guided toward self assessment (Kurt, 2014), Caution should be utilized when considering the use of self evaluation scales as a teaching learning tool, or to assess nursing students' competencies. Specific guidelines for evaluation must be clearly expressed to the student, and the consideration of bench mark demonstrations should be addressed.
Further, it is important to consider self evaluation in combination with expert feedback in nursing, because of the general tendencies for students to under-evaluate or over evaluate their performance.There is a need for current evidence regarding the effectiveness of requiring student self evaluations in nursing education. Specifically, research should be done to validate self-evaluation tools, and to determine the correlations with self evaluation and goal setting, performance improvement, and self efficacy.
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