Cultivating Evaluation Skills in Nurse Preceptors: A Pilot Study

Oklahoma University is seeking a grant to develop core evaluation competencies to instruct nurse preceptors on how to successfully evaluate student nurses clinical performance. The primary mission of the workshop is to develop and cultivate teaching and evaluation skills in nurse preceptors, enabling them to take a proactive approach to shape the experimental learning experiences of undergraduate nursing students to be better prepared upon graduation; hence, retention in the nursing profession. The specific aim of the pilot study workshop will be to determine if using evaluation competencies developed in the workshop would cultivate evaluation skills that will better prepare nurse preceptors to evaluate student nurse’s clinical performance after attending the workshop. Nurse preceptor’s input will be the foundation for creating clinical evaluation competencies. Funding in the amount of $93,500.00 is requested for the preceptor workshop.

Survey

You are part of a unique collaborative partnership between the VA hospital and the Oklahoma University. As someone who recently joined in a conversation activity about the positive aspect of mentoring and evaluating student’s clinical performance, are you willing to share your experience to help other collaborative partnerships? If so, you can make an important contribution today by answering this short survey about what happens on your units in evaluating student’s clinical performance. The survey will take less than 30 minutes to complete and all answers will remain anonymous. Please take the time to answer narrative questions as thoroughly as possible, two sentences or more preferably.

There are many benefits from your participation in both the research and evaluation projects such as:

  • Learning about the evaluation and its value to you and all nursing students.
  • Participate in a collaborative evaluation process that can be duplicated for other projects and can help form the groundwork for clinical evaluation competencies.
  • Receive a clear, comprehensive systematic evaluation plan.
  • Receive a final report of the evaluation competency project.

Your participation is completely voluntary. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and to stop participating at any time with no penalty to you. Again, all responses will be kept strictly confidential at all times and will not be released in any publication or discussion.

Questions 1 Through 4

Questions 1 through 4 asks for some personal information. This is strictly for the purpose of seeking clarification, if needed, to the responses you provide and to properly categorize your responses.

  1. Please provide your name. Again, all responses will be kept confidential; however, we may need to contact you if follow up or further clarification is required for your feedback.
  2. What is your member status? Please select only one.

Instructor                    Mentor            Student

  1. How many years, rounded off, have you been a nurse, instructor, or student?
  2. Have you evaluated nursing student’s clinical performance prior to employment with OU? Please include experiences with simulation labs or in a community or school setting. Please explain the experience and approximate time spent with each.

Questions 5 through 14

Questions 5 through 14 are designed to ascertain your understanding and attitude concerning evaluations. Please note that some questions are multipart questions.

  1. When you read the word ‘evaluation’ what is the first thought that comes to mind?
  2. How do you define the word ‘evaluation’?
  3. In the past two years how many student evaluations have you been involved in? Please select from the choices below.

□ None

□ One to two

□ Three to four

□ More than five

□ Do not know or Prefer not to answer

  1. Please rate your response to this question on a scale of one to five, where one is never or least likely and five is always or most likely. Use the space provided below the table to write in options you feel are not included. Do you believe evaluations:
  Never

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

Always

5

Yield useful information          
Are fair          
Produce results based on data          
Provide accurate results          
Facilitate change within the organization          
Foster relationships          
Enhance learning          
Are valued          
Other (please specify)          

 

  1. In what ways have you been affected by a previous evaluation’s findings or results?
  2. What do you hope to gain as a result of your participation in this survey on evaluation?
  3. In the past two years, how many student nurse evaluations have you completed? Please select from the choices below.

□ None

□ One to two

□ Three to four

□ More than five

□ Do not know or Prefer not to answer

  1. How often did you communicate with your student nurse mentee on evaluation competencies? Please select from the choices below.

□ Once per week

□ Twice per week

□ More than three times per week

□ More than five times per week

□ Do not know or Prefer not to answer

  1. How much or how little does the following statement describe your belief. Mentors should be paired with mentees? Please select from the choices below.

□ Not at all like me

 □ Slightly like me

□ Somewhat like me

□ Very much like me

□ Exactly like me

  1. How much or how little does the following statement describe you. A mentor should be available to their mentee by phone, email, and by meeting in person. Please select from the choices below.

□ Not at all like me

□ Slightly like me

□ Somewhat like me

□ Very much like me

□ Exactly like me

Questions 15 through 17

Questions 15 through 17 relates to your understanding of competency. Please answer to the best of your knowledge and understanding. Please answer the questions as thoroughly as possible preferably in two or more sentences.

  1. What is your organizations’ definition of competency?
  2. What is your definition of competency if different from the organization?
  3. Describe two methods of verification of competency that you are most familiar with using.

A.

B.

Questions 18 and 19

Questions 18 and 19 invite you to share any additional information and to collect permission to contact information from willing participants.

  1. Is there any other information that you believe would add to this survey but are not listed?
  2. As a reminder, your participation is completely voluntary and this question is strictly for the purpose of seeking clarification, if needed, to the responses you provide and opting not to be contacted will have no penalty to you. May we contact you if we have any questions about your responses?

Yes                  No

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