Comparison of nursing practitioners' competencies among different evaluation approaches: Peer assessment, superior assessment, and self-assessment

Abstract

<p>Session presented on: Wednesday, July 24, 2013:</p> <p><strong>Purpose:</strong> To ensure the quality of nursing, nurse practitioner become more and more important who plays a key role in development and leading advanced nursing professional practice. Therefore, assessing the professional competence of nurse practitioners is essential. The purpose of this study is attempting to evaluate the professional competence of nurse practitioners and compare differences among different approaches: peer assessment, superior assessment and self-assessment.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> The research design was a cross-sectional study design and subjects were selected by using stratified random sampling at teaching hospital in eastern Taiwan. A structured-questionnaire, Nurses Practitioners Competencies Questionnaire, was completed by 211 participants with a response rate 88%.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> The finding indicated that the level of competence was moderate (the mean score was 3.45 out of a possible score of 5; SD = 0.59). Among five dimensions of professional competence, the highest score was noted for 'direct patients care'; then was in 'communication and collaboration' (M/SD =3.54 - 0.77), and the lowest score was in 'Patient care quality monitor'. Among three different assessment approaches, the highest score was in peer assessment by physicians and lowest in head nurse supervisor assessment. These assessment approaches were significantly different in those five dimensions of competence.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Based on our findings, we suggest that evaluating the competence of nurse practitioners should use different assessment approaches and hope to ensure competencies to implement on the clinical practice and improve the quality of care</p>