Developing a Consensus-Based Scoring Rubric to Enhance Practice-Based Assessment of Student Nurses' Clinical Competence: A Delphi Study

BACKGROUND:Concerns about reliability and validity of practice-based assessment of professional competencies are frequently reported in the literature. Difficulty in understanding competency statements or distinguishing different achievement levels has been found to be a major factor.OBJECTIVES:To develop a consensus-based scoring rubric based on stakeholders' interpretations of level descriptors for student nurses' professional values competencies.DESIGN:Two rounds of Classic e-Delphi.SETTINGS:This study was conducted in a London based university using Bristol Online Survey website as a host.PARTICIPANTS:100 stakeholders with vested interests in undergraduate pre-registration nurse education were purposefully invited to participate.METHOD:Round one collected free-text interpretations of the United Kingdom Nursing and Midwifery Council professional values competency statements. Round two used a Likert scale questionnaire to measure the level of agreement to the level descriptor statements generated through round one. Responses were analysed through content analysis in round one and consensus measure in round two. A threshold of 70% agreement to determine consensus was set in advance.RESULTS:In round one, 47 participants provided their interpretations of the competency statements. In round two, 51 participants completed the questionnaire. All 24 items achieved a strong consensus with 86%-100% of participants agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statements.CONCLUSIONS:A Delphi study was successfully used to develop a consensus-based scoring rubric with clearly stated descriptors for professional values competency statements. This scoring rubric holds the potential to enhance practice-based assessment across all healthcare professional disciplines.