Evaluation of clinical performance is a high stakes assessment, and as such requires valid and reliable instruments. Content validation has been established for the Quality and Safety Competency-Based Clinical Evaluation instruments made available on this page using the content validity index. This builds on previous work published in Nurse Educator in January 2017 that established content validation for a Quality and Safety Competency based clinical evaluation.
These evaluations are designed for clinical courses where grades are assigned. They can be easily adapted for programs where clinical performance is scored as pass/fail or satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
Using the Quality and Safety Competencies to structure clinical performance evaluation provides a clear and organized framework for objective analysis of student performance in the clinical setting. It allows students to clearly identify the expectation for competence and understand individual strengths and weaknesses.
The table reports statistics for the instruments (scale content validity using universal agreement and using average agreement). Above .80 is considered excellent. The instruments demonstrate progression with higher level expectations in later courses.
Scale-level content validity using universal agreement method and average method.
Scale-level content validity using universal agreement method and average method.
| Clinical Course Evaluation | # of Items | S-CVI-U/A | S-CVI-Ave |
| Fundamentals of Nursing | 39 | .948 | .992 |
| Child-bearing Family Nursing | 38 | .940 | .986 |
| Psychiatric Nursing | 42 | .857 | .975 |
| Pediatric Nursing | 40 | .925 | .985 |
| Medical-Surgical 1 – Chronic Illness | 42 | .833 | .968 |
| Medical-Surgical 2- Acute Illness | 43* | .88 | .979 |
| Community Health Nursing | 42 | .952 | .990 |
| Graduate Nurse Practitioner | 34 | .970 | .995 |
*Item added post-study: Medication Reconciliation requirement
RESOURCES
Altmiller, G. & Dugan, M. (2021). Content validation of the quality and safety framed clinical evaluation for nurse practitioner students. Nurse Educator, 46(3), 159-63. Link to Publication in Nurse Educator
Altmiller, G. (2019). Content validation of Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) pre-licensure clinical evaluation instruments. Nurse Educator, 44(3), 118-121. Link to Publication in Nurse Educator
Altmiller, G. (2017). Content validation of a QSEN based clinical evaluation instrument. Nurse Educator, 42(1). 23-27. Link to Publication in Nurse Educator