A Systematic Review of the Validity and Reliability of Observational Measurement Tools Evaluating Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Individual Competency Outcomes Following High Fidelity Simulation-Based Clinical Experiences

Abstract

Competence outcomes of simulation-based clinical experiences (SBCEs) are being reported in the literature but it is not clear if current SBCE tools use observational measures of competence outcomes nor is the instrument’s validity and reliability clearly established for use with undergraduate nursing students following high fidelity SBCEs. This systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and searched the nursing literature (open start date - November 2014) focusing on SBCE outcomes of nursing competence, clinical judgment, clinical reasoning, and critical thinking. Nineteen studies were included and results indicated three tools that met standard reliability and validity criteria, and another three tools that met specific quality assessment criteria. These results raise the questions: how is nursing competence defined, what level of performance indicates competence for nursing students and graduate nurses and, is more than one tool required to accurately and comprehensively measure student competence performance outcomes.