Review : Assessing clinical competence of practitioners in children's nursing diploma programmes

Abstract

■ Children's nursing is a speciality that is particularly complex and challenging, and to be skilled and competent, nurses need to have the practical/technical dexterity, knowledge base and experience to care for the child as a whole

■ To assess practice-based experience, students are exposed to children in a variety of settings, the aim being to enable them to practice as safe and competent practitioners, meeting child and family needs for nursing intervention in both hospital and community settings

■ It is vital that the assessment of practice in all these settings encompasses the skills that are essential to a practitioner who is a 'competent performer'

■ Clinical learning outcomes are used for practice-based assessment, and the tool used is a written action plan which also identifies the actions, resources, time frame for achievement and how this achievement will be validated