Effective Assessment Practices

Effective Assessment Practices

Introduction

Assessment is the set of techniques used to evaluate the learning outcomes. In a professional setting, the same refers to the evaluation of achievement of the professional standards and skills. Assessments provide the ability to grade a student as well as it helps in the motivation and supports the learning process. In nursing practices, different methods are implemented to evaluate a diverse area of skills covering the practical knowledge, critical thinking, as well as the communication skills (Vaismoradi & Parsa-Yekta, 2011). The paper describes different methods used in nursing practices for assessment and are believed to be those which provide the credible results.

Discussion

Assessment practices are executed to evaluate learning and the extent of the student's achievements. No single method can help in evaluating a complete profile of learning outcomes of an individual. It is supposed that a combination of methods can be a most successful way to assess a student's knowledge. Where there it is useful in assessing the student's learning, it is also helpful in the evaluation of the effectiveness of course taught, making easy to make the decision of improvements if needed. In nursing, assessment becomes more important to evaluate the learning outcomes and competency to practice in the clinical setup (Sander & Trible, 2008). The judgment is made for the abilities of a student for critical thinking and decision-making capabilities, problem solving skills, managing skills and communication skills. In a broad way, the term assessment in the nursing area can be explained as estimation of the nurse's capabilities to assess, decide, plan, implement, and provide care to the patient (Oermann et al., 2009). The objective of testing and assessment is to evaluate the following in a student:

Knowledge (medical terminologies, concepts etc)

Understanding (the concepts, methods, problems etc)

Application of the knowledge learned

Critical thinking skills ...