Undergraduate Nurses Perceptions on the Nature of Assessments in a BSN Programme: A Malawian Perspective

Purpose: : The study aimed at exploring on how the undergraduate nurses perceived the nature of assessments in their BSN programme in relation to their readiness to their professional roles

Methods: A two–phased, cross sectional, sequential explanatory mixed method research design was used to analyze the learning processes of the under graduate nurses.  In Phase 2 of the study in-depth interview instrument was generated basing on the significant analyzed results from the learning styles, learning approaches and the Critical Thinking Appraisal questionnaires. Thus, semi-structured questions were derived from key and significant findings from the analyzed quantitative data.  Purposive intensity sampling strategy (Patton, 2002) was used to identify twenty participants from the health care settings. The data was analyzed utilizing the strategy by Ryan and Bernard (1998) of generating themes and categories where one theme on assessements from the six themes had emerged.

Results: The results of the study portray that the participants had  perceived that the assessments in their BSN programme were teacher-centered and that   had not promoted meaningful learning for practice since most of the learners were failing in the tests. The three sub-themes that emerged from the assessment theme comprised “ the teaching and learning were based on assessments; the emphasis was on passing of examinations and some assessments were perceived to be simple and straight forward”. The emphasis in the BSN programme was not on learning but was perceived to be based on passsing of  the assessments. These assessments were constrained by time and this  lead to memorization of subject content and failed to promote deep level cognitive processing and thinking among the learners which could have impacted on their level of clinical performance.

Conclusion: Understanding on how learners learn and develop is crucial specifically in the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) BSN programme to promote quality learning for practice through sound assessments.  An integrated teaching function and a combination of Socratic and Facilitative teaching methods should be encouraged through some teaching paradigm shifts.