| Learning Objective #1: Identify the role of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse in relation to evidence-based practice | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Create a model for assessing the application of knowledge related to evidence-based practice in nursing students or clinicians |
Introduction: Incorporating evidence-based practice into the baccalaureate curriculum can be challenging for any program but especially so for an assessment-based baccalaureate program. Faculty found a creative method for measuring students’ performance related to evidence-based practice in the capstone assessment, the Professional Role Performance Examination (PRPE). Historical Overview: In the PRPE, application of knowledge is tested through extended responses using videotape vignettes and written stimulus in three nursing roles or dimensions: Provider of Care, Manager of Care, and Coordinator of Care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, 1998). Evidence-based practice is specifically tested in the Coordinator of Care dimension. Assessment Methodology: Differentiating the practice competencies of the bacccalaureate-prepared nurse from that of the master’s- and doctorally-prepared nurse in relation to evidence-based practice provided a beginning for the development of the assessment. During the examination, students assume the role of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse in the chronic-care clinic. The context for evidence-based practice is the clinical practice committee on which the nurse serves. The committee identified common problems among the clients in the clinic based on trends in audit data, then searched the literature for related research and critiqued the studies. Students are not asked to actually critique the research studies during this assessment because they were previously tested on this behavior during a computer-based, multiple-choice and extended-response nursing research examination earlier in the curriculum. In the capstone examination, students are evaluated on their ability to think critically and make sound clinical judgments as they develop plans for implementing needed changes in the clinic based on linking the evidence in the clinic audit data and in the research studies. Conclusion: Data on the validity and reliability of the measure will be collected and analyzed as students begin to test this fall.
Back to Evidence-Based Education
Back to International Evidence-Based Practice Preconference
Sigma Theta Tau International
9 July 2003