Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Mary Ramirez

Abstract

Difficulty in evaluating underperforming nursing students in clinical settings is a problem for many nursing programs. The subjective nature of evaluations and faculty reluctance to provide negative evaluations have implications for subsequent patient care. A descriptive single case study research design was used to explore the experiences of clinical faculty evaluating underperforming nursing students in clinical settings at a U.S. Midwest community college. Gagné's learning outcomes and the National League for Nursing (NLN) Clinical Nurse Educator Core Competency: Implements Effective Clinical Assessment and Evaluation Strategies provided the conceptual framework for the study. The research questions focused on how nursing faculty identified, described, and evaluated students who are underperforming in traditional and simulation clinical settings. Twenty-one nursing clinical faculty recruited through purposeful sampling completed an online questionnaire and 11 completed semistructured interviews. Content and deductive analysis of data revealed 3 themes of nursing students' underperformance that correlated with Gagné's learning outcomes. Participants employed aspects of the NLN competency when evaluating underperforming nursing students in traditional and simulation clinical experiences. Analysis of study data also revealed a lack of policies to ensure objective, consistent clinical evaluation, and support underperforming clinical students. A policy recommendation related to evaluation and remediation for underperforming nursing students in clinical settings was developed to address this gap. Implementation of the policy recommendation has the potential to increase nursing student competence and success, which may result in improved patient care outcomes.

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